Rockford East High School (sometimes referred to as East) is a comprehensive four year

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Rockford Public School District 205 Rockford Public Schools, officially designated by the state as Rockford Public Schools District 205 is a large unit school district located in Rockford, Illinois. In 2012, the district had an enrollment of 26,980 students, making it the fourth-l ...

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

. Opened in 1940 to replace Rockford High School, East opened simultaneous to Rockford West to serve the quickly expanding population.

History

By 1935, the attendance in Rockford's single high school grew too large. The

board of education A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

decided it would be best to establish two new high schools on the East and West sides of the Rock River. In 1938, the school board approved $3 million in funding to build two new high schools to replace Rockford High School, with 45% of the budget funded by

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. Rockford High School was renamed as Central High School and the two new schools were opened as East High School and West High School. Rockford West, located on North Rockton Avenue on the Northwest side of the city, remained open for 48 years as a high school, it now serves as West Middle School. Rockford East, located on Charles Street, is still a functioning high school and maintains the traditions of Rockford High School.

Athletics

East takes part in the Northern Illinois Conference (NIC-10) and is a member of the

Illinois High School Association The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Fed ...

. Notably, during the 1940s, East's Boys Golf Team placed first in half of the IHSA championships played during the decade, with one additional first place in the late 1950s. 4 of these first place winnings were in a row from the school years 1940-41 to 1944-45 with the 5th being disconnected by placing second in 1945-46, losing by 6 strokes to

Hinsdale Central High School Hinsdale Central High School, or HCHS (locally referred to as simply "Central") is a public four-year high school located at the corner of W. 55th St. and S. Grant St. in Hinsdale, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United ...

Notable alumni

* Bill Erickson (Class of 1946), consensus Second Team All-American basketball player at

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. * John E. Erickson, basketball head coach at

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, general manager of NBA's

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

and politician * Robert Jones, NFL player *

Natasha Leggero Natasha Leggero () (born March 26, 1974) is an American comedian, actress and writer. She rose to fame after appearing as the host of the MTV reality television series '' The 70s House'' in 2005, and as a regular roundtable panelist on Chelsea Ha ...

, comedian *

Ira Matthews Ira Richard Matthews, III (born August 23, 1957) is a former American football kick returner and punt returner. He played three seasons for the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). Matthews stood 5'8" and weighed 175 lbs w ...

(Class of 1975), football player with the Oakland Raiders *

Rodney Myers Rodney Luther Myers (born June 26, 1969) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, and Los Angeles Dodgers, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for ...

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher (

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

). *

Ed Viesturs Edmund Viesturs (born June 22, 1959) is a high-altitude mountaineer, corporate speaker, and well known author in the mountain climbing community. He is the only American to have climbed all 14 of the world's eight-thousander mountain peaks, and ...

- Mountain Climber

References

{{authority control High schools in Rockford, Illinois Public high schools in Illinois Educational institutions established in 1940 1940 establishments in Illinois