DeKALB – Whenever Paul Engstrom attends a home basketball game at DeKalb High School, it’s like a double homecoming for him. Not only did he graduate from the old DHS in 1948, but he once lived on the property where the new high school sits.

“Our house used to sit right in the middle of the pond,” he said.

Although he never played basketball in high school, Engstrom officiated the sport for 43 years, as well as football for 37 years, earning him a niche in the Illinois High School Association’s hall of fame as an official.