![\"Dorsey](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786259922_784_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nDorsey High\u2019s 1982 City Section football championship team walked onto the stage with a youthful swagger. Though it has been decades since they celebrated within the halls of the school, it was like they had never left that courtyard.<\/p>\n
Alumni and family cheered and danced alongside them at Dorsey\u2019s first full athletics reunion. Soon after, the cheerleaders for the 1976 championship basketball team came out to perform. The up and coming sports teams for the 2026-27 school year came out with their families, as hundreds of people celebrated the legacy and the future of the school.<\/p>\n
But Dorsey has undergone a lot of changes since the turn of the century.<\/p>\n
In 25 years, it has gone from a well-attended school with a successful athletics program to one that has faded into the background of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
The last football championship came in 2001. The next year, Dorsey enrolled 2,211 students, the most in school history, according to Public School Review. Now, enrollment is hitting a low with 792 students, according to US News, and the athletic teams are trying to find that powerhouse status again.<\/p>\n
Enter former football head coach Paul Knox. He had a solution \u2014 or at least an idea. Bring together the athletics alumni of Dorsey for a day of celebration, with a look ahead to the future.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, hundreds of current and former Dorsey Dons came to the school for the reunion. There were a lot of stories, old photos, laughter and love being passed around from people who haven\u2019t touched the campus in four decades. Alumni from all the way back in the 1950s came. Knox gave tours of the renovations the school has undertaken, and the event also highlighted the soon-to-be football stadium and new basketball gym.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, the current teams were introduced to everybody in attendance as was the 1976 City championship basketball team. The chance to showcase both the past and present is what inspired Knox, who hasn\u2019t coached at Dorsey since 2014, to put on this event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe atmosphere that is here, the pride that everybody has in the school in general \u2026 it\u2019s one of the most passionate alumni that you are going to have,\u201d Knox said.<\/p>\n
Dorsey\u2019s enrollment struggles are not unique. Across California, public school enrollment is down. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, enrollment dropped over 16,000 in the past year. Private and charter schools are on the up in both academics and athletics, leaving places such as Dorsey \u2014 that dominated for so long \u2014 behind.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dorsey High alum and former major leaguer Don Buford sits under a towering ficus tree on campus Saturday during the school\u2019s all-sports reunion.<\/p>\n
(Caleb Otte \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
Dorsey has a long history of sending athletes to the professional leagues. Former major leaguer Don Buford, who graduated in 1955, was present at the event. He barely had a moment to himself as multiple other alumni wanted to chat and grab photos with him, and Buford was happy to exchange excited, reminiscent anecdotes.<\/p>\n
Buford was sitting in front of a massive ficus tree, with roots the size of a 5-year-old child coming up out of the ground. He took a moment to look back when talking to a class of 1958 alumni, noticing the size of the plant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went here, this was just a little tree,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Eighty years of students coming through the halls of Dorsey watched the small seedling sprout into a towering, beautiful beast. <\/p>\n
Knox, and the administration of the school, are treating this reunion as the initial seed for the rehabilitation of the athletics program and hopefully the entire school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe passion is there,\u201d Knox said. \u201cWe\u2019re really hoping to inspire the teams now, to show them that there\u2019s depth behind the things they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the prime directive of the event, it simply served as a way for the Dorsey community to experience joy. So many former players caught up with their coaches. People were introducing themselves to legendary alumni that they hoped to meet. Finding a face without a smile would\u2019ve been a Herculean task.<\/p>\n
The day also served as a chance to show the current students at Dorsey what opportunities are out there for them, whether that be from sports or otherwise. Former champions were highlighted alongside what Dorsey hopes are their future champions.<\/p>\n
Baseball alumni all wore shirts that said \u201cLegacy of Greatness \u2026 Five Rings, One Legacy.\u201d Their most recent championship was in 2014. Little signs like that permeated the day, as did a big one displaying every Dorsey championship.<\/p>\n
The idea that the school has a history of success, and they want to get back there, was the cornerstone of the event \u2014 without it being explicitly stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you go here, you get that feeling,\u201d Knox said.<\/p>\n
Even with all the fanfare, the man giving out raffle tickets at the front entrance encapsulated it perfectly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great day to be a Don.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dorsey High\u2019s 1982 City Section football championship team walked onto the stage with a youthful swagger. Though it…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":990596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[26626,181309,1582,276,2385,3707,87856,2576,19835,29831,2961,25788,224,5337,7088,57865,3546,11645,16464,15689],"class_list":["post-990595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alumnus","tag-athletic-team","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-day","tag-dorsey","tag-enrollment","tag-event","tag-future","tag-knox","tag-la","tag-legacy","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-lot","tag-past","tag-people","tag-school","tag-school-year","tag-student"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117064336778602673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/990596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}