1980s

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With the baby boom rapidly fading, talk and controversy about consolidating College and Sooner Highs began as early as 1970 and a plan was discussed in 1973-74, but no action was taken. Decreasing enrollments led to consolidation proposals being revived in 1977 with formal committees on the issue in 1978. A September, 1980 bond issue for renovations and additions, which grew to include a swimming pool and gymnasium, was defeated by a large margin. Shortly thereafter, the board of education voted to consolidate the two high schools and re-establish Bartlesville High School. 

The rivalry between the Col-Hi Wildcats and Sooner Spartans ended with the establishment of the unified Bartlesville Bruins in the fall of 1982. Freshmen and sophomores began attending classes at the former Sooner site, which was renamed Bartlesville Mid-High. Juniors and seniors attended former College High, now back to being called Bartlesville High School. (That arrangement would last for 33 years until the high school expanded to serve grades 9-12 and the Mid-High was repurposed as a replacement for Madison Middle School.)

Dennis Pannell's successor as principal was Ben West. The eighties brought a short-lived Greenway environmental club. The Sadie Hawkins tradition of girls asking guys to a dance was revived in 1983 with the first Snowball dance, which would continue until the 2010s. The shift to Bruins led the Wild Bunch to become the Bru Crew, with many loud years of packed basketball games in the old field house.

Bartlesville had a 500-year flood in 1986. Water came up through the drains into the lower level of Custer Stadium, forcing the evacuation of typewriters and other furnishings and equipment and later repairs.

Photographs

1983 First Class of Bruins
Bruin and Wildcat floor mosaics
Bruin Foyer Mosaic
Bears on the mosaic
1980s chemistry class
Personal computers at BHS

Facility History

1982
College High becomes Bartlesville High School, prompting a variety of renovations:

  • Parking was expanded by removing aisle rails in the south parking lot and restriping the lot for right-angle instead of slanted spaces; a new parking lot was built on the north end of the campus and spaces were added along the alleyway near the tennis courts. A metal bar along the Hillcrest parking was removed and replaced by a large curb. All lots were resurfaced by the K.C. Asphalt Company of Bartlesville.

  • A ramp was added to the main entrance of the school.

  • The exteriors of all of the buildings were repainted.

  • The main gym floor was resurfaced and the field house hall floors were retiled.

  • Large raised lettering reading COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL on the exterior of the auditorium was removed.

  • A Bruin tile mosaic was added to the floor of the main lobby. It was removed in the summer of 2012 when all of the floor tiles of the main building were replaced.

1986
A flood inundated Custer Field and three to four feet of water damaged rooms in the stadium and Phillips Field House in a hundred-year flood of the Caney River. Flood damage of $52,033 was incurred with two basement stadium classrooms, built in what was once the metal shop, destroyed and band and football uniforms soaked and soiled. Typewriters and band instruments, however, had been moved up to the middle floor and were saved.

The classes of 1986, 1987, and 1988 funded a Bartlesville High School / Home of the Bruins sign out front.

1988
The cinder track around Custer Field was replaced with the modernized Chuck Doornbos Track, via a $150,000 donation from the Doornbos family (Chuck's son Foster Doornbos & daughter Ami Preston). Chuck was a track star in high school and at the University of Kansas. The Doornbos family would also contribute toward a renovation of the track in 2004. An interesting note is that the original striping on the Doornbos track had a conversion error when the change from the old U.S.-measurements track to metric measurements was made, something that was caught in the track renovation. The Doornbos Track would be renovated again in 2017 and 2022.