Mayor Ed Kelly promoted a game pitting the Catholic League champs against the Public League champs, a “Prep Bowl” city championship that drew record crowds to Soldier Field and raised millions of dollars for youth-related city charities. Carmel won for the first time.Ĭatholic League football predates the Bears, and throughout the ‘30s, one could make the case that it was more popular. And in 1927, a football Goliath began stirring when Mt. The ‘20s saw the South Side schools assert themselves DeLaSalle won two titles and shared two more with St. Ignatius interrupted the DePaul streak in 1918 and won again in 1920. Schools had the most football aspirants to choose from.ĭePaul Academy won the first five Catholic League championships and six of the first seven. The area surrounding what is now downtown remained Chicago’s most populous as the city rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1871, so the close-in Immigrant kids who formed the majority of the student body at most Catholic schools took to it with such vigor that football almost immediately became the CCL’s signature sport. Laurence ‘86 classmates Tim Grunhard and Stan Smagala were teammates on Lou Holtz’s 1988 national champions.įootball was not one of the original offerings when the Catholic League was organized in 1912.It was added the following year, and the high energy Carmel ‘82) played for Gerry Faust’s Irish, and St. Carmel ‘61), Nick Rassas (Loyola ‘62), Joe Farrell (Mendel ‘60), John Meyer (Brother Rice ‘60) and Jay Standring (Leo ’66). Several Catholic Leaguers had a hand in Ara Parseghian’s resurrection of the Notre Dame program, including Tony Carey (Mt. Guard Ed Burke (Mendel ‘59) was also an Oiler, having first been part of a pipeline from the Monarchs’ Roseland campus to Notre Dame, along with end Tom Goberville (‘60) and quarterback Dennis Szot ‘60. Linebacker Gregg Bingham followed him from Gordon (‘69) to the Big Ten (Purdue ‘73) to the NFL (Houston Oilers). Like Tim Foley, Cas Banaszek mastered position switches, playing quarterback at Gordon Tech (‘63), tight end at Northwestern ‘67) and offensive tackle for a decade with the San Francisco 49ers. ‘55, Indiana ‘59) would have won a ring as a guard for the NFL champion Bears. Had the the Super Bowl been around in 1963, Mike Rabold (Fenwick David Diehl (Brother Rice ‘97, Illinois ‘01) can match him, having earned two rings as an offensive tackle with the New York Giants in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI. Tim Foley (‘66) was a quarterback at Loyola Academy, a safety at Purdue (‘70) and a two-time Super Bowl winner with the Miami Dolphins in VII and VIII. Mel graduates Tom Bettis (‘51) and Tom Keating ‘60) were participants in Super Bowls I and II, Bettis on the winning side with the Green Bay Packers after he’d played college ball at Purdue and Keating on losing side with the Raiders after an All-America career at Michigan. It helped Johnny Lattner (Fenwick ‘50) win the Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame in ‘53.Ĭatholic Leaguers were a Super Bowl presence long before Callahan made his mark with Raiders. It helped Bill Callahan (Mendel ‘74) reach the top rung of the coaching profession when he led the Oakland Raiders against the Tampa Bay Bucs in Super Bowl XXXVIII one year earlier. Carmel ‘94) enjoy a standout career as an NFL quarterback, reaching Super Bowl XXXIX with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2005. It’s the Catholic League Way, and it helped Donovan McNabb (Mt. But any college coach who signs a CCL player or any employer who hires one canīe confident he’s getting a determined achiever who will work hard and finish the job while competing with honesty and integrity. The Catholic League might not produce the same sheer volume of talent as, say, the football hotbeds of Florida, Texas or Western Pennsylvania. So, too, are the thousands of youngsters who may have lacked the size or the skill to play football beyond high school, but channeled the lessons they learned on Catholic League playing fields toward success in all walks of their personal and professional lives. Men like Tony Lawless, Jim Arneberg, Tom Winiecki, Lou Guida, Pat Cronin, Frank Maloney, Bob Naughton, Bob Foster, John Hoerster, Tom Mitchell and Frank Lenti, to name a few. So are the dozens of coaches who devoted their professional lives to teaching youngsters the right way to play the game, on and off the field. Professional players and enough college stars to stock a good-sizedĬonference are all part of the rich history of Chicago Catholic League football.
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