[citation needed] The school opened in 1925 with 1,400 students and 39 teachers as southwest Oak Cliff became increasingly developed.

[7] The mascot is the American Bison; it was chosen since early students had to cross open fields to get to school.

[citation needed] In the summer of 2006, Anthony Tovar, a Mexican American raised in Dallas who was previously an assistant principal at W. H. Adamson High School and Moises Molina High School, began work as the principal of Sunset.

He gained a reputation of being an excellent principal partly due to his hands-on, involved approach in which he actively communicated with students.

That year Tovar had been placed on a "growth plan" (a DISD notice asking the principal to improve his school's metrics or face termination).

[10] Tovar left DISD in 2013 but stated that he was not forced to resign;[11] in 2015, he returned as an interim assistant principal at Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy.

It also formally dedicated the Sunset Byron Rhome Football Fieldhouse with a huge ceremony at the school attended by some 700 people.

[17] David W. Carter High School won the 1988 Class AAAAA title but was later forced to forfeit the win.

In 2021, South Oak Cliff High School broke the drought by winning the 2021 Class 5A Division II state title.