The mysterious case of Stetson High School.

Mysteries often pop up when you least expect them.

Case in point: I was in attendance at Foxboro High last night as the boys' basketball team was wrapping up its victory over Randolph High to earn the Warrior Classic championship. And the topic came up at the scorer's table that Randolph had once been a member of the Hockomock League, many moons ago.

Indeed, both Randolph and Westwood were members of the Hockomock back in the 1950s, long before the league embraced football. The Hockomock itself cites 1932 as its founding date, but its core membership -- schools like Mansfield, Foxboro, Franklin, Oliver Ames, Canton and Stoughton -- can trace their affiliation back to the "Norfolk Interscholastic League" of the 1920s.

But as the discussion continued, Ryan Lanigan of HockomockSports.com raised the question of another school that may have had Hockomock membership at about the same time. After a quick smartphone search, he came up with a Twitter post by the honorary "Mayor of Norton," Peter Wiggins, a familiar fixture at the Lancers' sporting events. The post included a photo of an old newspaper clipping from 1950 that had the Hockomock's basketball standings -- and among the teams listed was "Stetson."

Nobody seemed to know what or where Stetson High was -- but after a little searching, I think I've come up with the answer.

Stetson High apparently WAS Randolph High, at least at one point in the town's history.

Here's what I found:

One of the more prominent citizens of Randolph in the early days of the republic was Maj. Amasa Stetson, a former military officer and boot manufacturer who eventually became a state senator. He provided the funds for the building of a new town hall for Randolph -- not surprisingly, called "Stetson Hall" -- which was completed in 1842, two years before Maj. Stetson's death.

The town's first high school occupied part of Stetson Hall, until a new building was built nearby and opened in 1909. The school retained the "Stetson" name, however -- and did until it graduated its last class in 1952.

By that time, Randolph had built a new, modern high school -- and upon its opening, the town decided to call it "Randolph High School." Accordingly, later listings of the standings which I used to find in the old microfilm files of the Mansfield News included "Randolph" instead of its former name.

Naming a town's high school (as opposed to elementary schools) after a prominent community figure is rare, but not unheard of. Of course, Easton's high school is Oliver Ames High, after the patriarch of that famed political family, who was governor of Massachusetts from 1887-90. Joseph Case High School of Swansea was so named by Mr. Case's daughter, who married into money and basically paid for the construction of the town's first high school as long as it was named after her dad. And the original name of Falmouth High School was Lawrence High School (not sure why), but it was changed in 1973 when the newer Falmouth High was opened. The old Lawrence High School is now Lawrence Middle School in downtown Falmouth.

And I almost forgot this humorous aside -- several years ago, there was a short-lived proposal to rename Attleboro High School as "Coelho High School" after a beloved school superintendent. The proposal didn't get much traction, however, and the ink-stained wags of my former newspaper had a field day with it (although not in print). We believed that the proposal was doomed to failure all along because North Attleboro would never agree to becoming North Coelho. Ha, ha.

So there you have it. But a caveat -- if I don't have the story right, please feel free to email me at theownersbox2020@gmail.com, and we'll tell the tale again.