Payson Historical Society Pictures Tell The Payson Story

Pictured: The Payson High School Championship Football Team of 1932.  Pictured on the back row, second from left, is Coach Stanley Wilson.  He and wife Gladys Wilson established Payson's first golf course, which was originally located on West Utah Avenue where today we find Liberty Safe and Temkin among other businesses.  Gladstan Golf Course is named after the couple.

Prior to 1928 the athletic teams at Payson High School had been known by various mascot names.  When the students first started playing football in 1911, their nickname became "The Farmers."  Later it was "The Beetdiggers."  Several years later Avard Fairbanks, a noted artist, presented the school with a plaster buffalo.  Pleased with the gift, the school's sports teams then became "The Buffalos."  They officially changed their name to the Payson Lions after the local Lions Club Charter in 1928.  Read the complete story by Payson historian, L. Dee Stevenson in this week's edition of The Payson Chronicle.