Miami High School Photographs

Miami, a small mining town in central Arizona, was first settled in 1909. The town's major industry is copper production, so most of the town's residents worked in the mines in some capacity. Miami suffered from the racism and discrimination rampant in the United States during the early 20th century, including segregated educational facilities and the Mexican Scale, under which non-white workers were excluded from supervisory positions and paid less than their Anglo counterparts for the same work. Miami High School was founded in 1916. Primary education was segregated, with Anglo children attending the George Washington Elementary School or the Inspiration Addition School and Mexican American children attending Bullion Plaza Elementary School. Miami High School was integrated, but discrimination against non-white students was widespread.

Ernest Kivisto came to Miami High School in 1947, where he taught English and coached the Miami Vandals basketball team. Kivisto quickly discovered that the team included a number of talented Mexican American players, many of whom had grown up playing basketball at the Mexican Y, and under Kivisto's leadership the Vandals surpassed both state and national scoring records in their first season. Kivisto also fought to secure proper equipment for the Vandals, including making a deal with Converse to procure new uniforms, shoes, and warm-ups. Previously, the team's uniforms were extremely old and many players needed to borrow each other's clothes and shoes in order to play. Kivisto also insisted that his players wear suits and ties on game days, purchasing these items himself if the player could not afford them.

Kivisto emphasized teamwork, insisting that his players put aside their prejudices and treat each other as equals on the basketball court. He also stood up for his players when they encountered discrimination outside of basketball. In one memorable incident, he refused to allow part of the team to eat at a restaurant displaying a sign reading No Mexicans Allowed on the grounds that they were a team and if part of the team couldn't eat, then none of the team would. Word of this advocacy spread quickly, helping to unite not only the Vandals but also the town of Miami.

The 1950-51 basketball team, dubbed the Mighty Miami Vandals, won the Class B State Basketball Championship after an undefeated season. Interestingly, they defeated the team from Carver High School, a segregated school for African Americans in Phoenix, to win this title. Miami was extraordinarily proud of its winning team and hosted several celebratory events, including the Miami Chamber of Commerce's Vandal Night, which sold over 200 tickets. The Vandals were praised as far away as Helsinki, where a newspaper described the accomplishments of Ernest Kivisto, a coach of Finnish extraction.

In addition to improving ethnic relations in Miami, the championship provided opportunities for the players, many of whom were offered athletic scholarships that allowed them to attend college. After graduation, the former Vandals went on to professional careers, thus escaping a working-class environment and achieving the upward mobility their parents had sought. Although Kivisto left Miami to accept a position at East Moline High School in Moline, Illinois, he remembered the Vandals as the dream team, the team every coach hopes and plans for, but never quite gets.