Catholic League took time to build its reputation

By Ron Brocato, Sports

The Catholic League is 67 years old this fall and although the number is not significant as dates go, the league, designated by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association as District 9-5A, is still the only district that has carried a more popular title throughout the eight decades of its existence.

Anyone familiar with high school sports in this state has heard of the Catholic League, a group of schools whose sports teams were once part of a single, citywide prep league that existed from 1911 through 1954 until the expansion of local high schools following the Korean War (1950-53) necessitated that the city create a second league.

This season that league will include a new member, Edna Karr, a Class 4A school playing up to 5A, which will replace the exiting Archbishop Shaw for at least two years.

Looking back, the year 1955 saw rapid growth in the metropolitan area.

Just three years earlier, the landscape of prep sports changed when the city’s public schools became coed. That added McDonogh High, formerly an all-girls’ school, to the mix and forced its sister school, Sophie Wright, to drop down to junior high status in the 6-3-3 grades system.

Jefferson Parish began to flourish with the widening of Veterans Memorial Highway and the opening of two large, consolidated high schools. More school-aged students needed to be accommodated as the population grew.

The Prep League, which had included the city’s public and Catholic schools, ballooned in 1955 to 11. And that didn’t include Chalmette.

LHSAA Commissioner T.H. “Muddy” Waters had no recourse but to create a second league, which was fine with the administrations of the Catholic schools that wanted a league of their own. There were no district designations at that time.

Waters accommodated them and created a “Catholic League” to include Jesuit, St. Aloysius, Holy Cross, Redemptorist and De La Salle. Holy Name of Mary in Algiers, the 1955 Class B state champion, would join in 1956, but lasted just two years before becoming an elementary school.

The second league, informally known as the “Public League,” included Warren Easton, Fortier, Nicholls and the new East Jefferson in Metairie and West Jefferson in Harvey. But, because the parish schools were new, they would not compete for a public school football championship, just yet, as they would in other sports.

Parish officials felt that the new mega public schools would prevent or at least diminish the recruitment of athletes by Catholic schools in the city. (Archbishop Rummel and Shaw were still a decade away from opening in Jefferson Parish.)

Because just one team from New Orleans qualified for the state AAA playoffs, the two leagues’ officials decided to hold a championship game between the Catholic League and public school champions to determine the city’s playoff representative.

The new league didn’t open to rave reviews. It took a few years to develop a premier reputation in the eyes of the media.

The first official Catholic League game was played on Sept. 9, 1955, matching Redemptorist against De La Salle at City Park Stadium before a modest crowd of 3,300 at a cost of 75 cents for an adult ticket – more than three times the price of a gallon of gas (23 cents).

The game wasn’t particularly a classic. Redemptorist won, 7-0. Jimmy Moran scored the league’s first touchdown.

St. Aloysius (3-0-1 record) won the championship, edging Redemptorist (2-1-1) against whom it played to a tie. Holy Cross finished third at 3-1 with De La Salle (1-2) and Jesuit (0-4) following.

The Crusaders also won the “City Championship” by beating public winner Warren Easton, 13-0, before losing to Istrouma and its star back, future Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon, 33-0, in the South Louisiana title game.

The following year it was Redemptorist’s turn to be the league’s and city champion when the Rams knocked off public school power Easton, 25-7.

Over the decades the Catholic League has seen seven members come and go: Rummel entered in 1966, St. Augustine and Shaw the following year, and Cor Jesu for a year in 1968, followed by its replacement, Brother Martin, in 1969, when St. Aloysius closed.

Thibodaux, Terrebonne and South Terrebonne (1964-65) were brief members, and Chalmette, Slidell and West Jefferson were also in-and-out partners. Now, after 56 years, Shaw has also dropped out.

Jesuit and Holy Cross are the only remaining charter members. Brother Martin, Rummel, St. Augustine, John Curtis (2015) and now Karr fill the district, which opens play on Sept. 23.

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