As October comes to an end, The Forge takes a look back at 112 years of the paper.
On Oct. 4 2019, The Forge was published. One article from that edition of The Forge had a news article with progress updates on Santa Barbara High School’s (SBHS) Peabody Stadium. In October 2019, the stadium was 93 percent complete. The construction began in 2015, but weather delays pushed back the finishing date from August 2019 to December 2019. The stadium now houses 2,300 seats and the total spending on the project was 39 million. 28 million was spent on construction.
In October of 1967, SBHS and San Marcos (SM) had a crosstown football rivalry dating back eight years prior to 1959. When The Forge was published on Oct. 6 1967 Dons had just beat the SM Royals 27-0. The Dons had won the rivalry six out of the eight years. The Dons were off to an early lead by halftime with a score of 13-0. Star players included Tony Jackson, Grady Hurst, Don Pearson, and Jerry Hughes.
In 2006, fashion was a big topic of interest with high school students. The Forge that month was published on Oct. 13, 2006. The paper had a lengthy article consisting of current fashion trends and influencers. The popular and “must-have” articles of the clothing list contained leggings, ballet flats, skinny jeans, a print dress and a pea coat. Accessories to add to the outfit included a Burberry scarf, big sunglasses, a tote bag, some boots, and a video iPod. Students said their favorite brands and fashion icons were Ralph Lauren, Robert Cavalli, Gwen Stefani, and Valentino. That’s not all, because the best-dressed celebrity couples in October 2006 were Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson, Victoria and David Beckham, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe as well as Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.
A big change that happened at SBHS in October 1992 was that the Pepsi machines at school had been replaced by Coca-Cola machines. Mr. Wheeler, former SBHS yearbook advisor, had instituted the Pepsi machines. It started in his classroom, but due to the popularity of Coca-Cola, many more were installed all across the campus. Pepsi had a bottling plant location in Ventura that transferred to North Carolina. This caused the switch of soda. Not only did the type of soda change, but the size as well. A $0.75 12 ounce can of Pepsi was replaced for a $1.00 20 ounces re-sealable bottle of Coca-Cola. Coco-Cola was the cheaper soda per ounce.
Throughout many years, October has been important for SBHS with football, construction, student trends, and economic changes and The Forge continues to document it all.














![[The SBHS Girls Waterpolo 2025-’26 team photo, Image Credit: Legends Photography]](https://sbhsforgenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-19-at-3.23.45-PM-1200x878.png)
















































