page_title: Dodge Center High School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Dodge Center High School / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Dodge Center High School Girls' Basketball Team, 1922
context_page_description: Dodge Center High School was a high school located in Dodge Center, Minnesota, United States. It existed from the 1870s until 1990.
context_section_description: The Dodge Center area was first settled in the 1850s and officially became a town in 1869. By 1870, the one-room schoolhouse, in which a Mrs. Rice taught, had become too small. The people of Dodge Center built a wooden, L-shaped, two-story schoolhouse, costing about $15,000. The first high school commencement exercises were held in 1885. When that school was also outgrown, a new brick building was built in 1898.
  The new building, at the corner of 1st Ave NW and 3rd Street NW, was used until 1972. A gymnasium, auditorium and two classrooms were added in 1936, part of President Franklin Roosevelt's WPA program. An addition of a library and home-economics room was added in 1950, and an elementary school building was constructed in 1958. Of the 1890s portion of the building (demolished in 1972), one stairwell and a classroom still exist. The small 1898 portion, 1936, 1950 and 1958 additions remain standing and are now owned by a private entity (as of August 2007). The entire structure is now owned by a private entity and houses apartments with several small businesses. A new high school was erected on the western edge of town in 1972 and is still in use.
  It is not known when the school chose a nickname or when they started participating in organized athletics. The school colors were maroon and gold until the 1930s or 1940s, when they were changed to green and white. The nickname was Dodgers. The school fight song was "D.C. Rouser", to the tune of the "Minnesota Rouser" from the University of Minnesota.
  In 1952, the Dodge Center football team became one of six Minnesota high school teams to not allow a single point in a season.
  An official school annual was first published in 1948 and called Dodger Digest. In the early 1950s, the annual was called DO CE HI, then changed to Centerite, which continued publishing each year through 1990, when the last class graduated from Dodge Center High School.
caption: Dodge Center High School girls' basketball team, 1922
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