Cisco College

Cisco Junior College, in the north part of Cisco, is on the site of three previous colleges. Britton Training School, established by O. C. Britton in 1909, was its first forerunner. A leading North Texas newspaper proclaimed Britton's school to be "situated . . . on the highest peak in Eastland County, above the mosquito line, one of the best places in the West for a school of this kind." Britton closed during World War I, and Randolph College, a four-year baccalaureate school supported by the First Christian Church, replaced it in 1923. In 1932 Randolph officials reorganized the school as Randolph Junior College, but it closed in 1934.

Legislation signed by Governor W. Lee O'Daniel on May 8, 1939, officially authorized the founding of Cisco Junior College. With a vacant campus available, the Cisco school board and superintendent Robert N. Cluck were able to organize the college in 1940 as a part of the Cisco Independent School District. Cluck served as the first president, while retaining his superintendency. Cisco High School principal O. L. Stamey acted as the new junior college's first dean and later (1947–54) as its first full-time president. The founders intended to benefit the people of Cisco and surrounding communities with both academic and vocational college-level courses.