Loyola Academy
Location
Map
1100 Laramie Avenue Wilmette
,
Illinois

United States
Coordinates42°5′1″N 87°45′39″W / 42.08361°N 87.76083°W / 42.08361; -87.76083
Information
School typePrivate, Catholic, Non-profit Coeducational secondary (Grades 9-12) education institution
MottoMen and Women for Others
Religious affiliation(s)Roman Catholic (Jesuit)
Established1909; 115 years ago (1909)
PresidentRev. Gregory J. Ostdiek, SJ[1]
ChairmanJames Walsh '79
PrincipalTimothy Devine '88 [2]
CampusSuburban
  • Main
    Wilmette Campus
    (Administration & Class room buildings
  • Satellite
    Theodore G.Munz,SJ Campus
    1901 Johns Drive
    60 acres (240,000 m2)
    (Athletic fields)
Color(s)   Maroon and gold[3]
Athletics34 different sports and over 80 athletic teams[3]
Athletics conferenceCCL, GCAC
MascotRowdy the Ramble
Team nameRamblers
NewspaperThe Prep[4]
YearbookThe Year
AffiliationsNCACS[5]JSEA
Websitewww.goramblers.org

Loyola Academy is a private, co-educational college preparatory high school run by the USA Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, and in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. It is a member of the Jesuit Secondary Education Association and the largest Jesuit high school in America, with over 2,000 students from more than 80 different zip codes throughout the Chicago area. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1909.

History

Loyola Academy was founded as a Roman Catholic, Jesuit, college preparatory school for young men in 1909. The school was originally located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, on the campus of Loyola University Chicago's Dumbach Hall; it moved to the current Wilmette campus in 1957. Both Loyola University and its prep school adjunct, Loyola Academy, grew out of St. Ignatius College Prep, a Roman Catholic, Jesuit college preparatory school in Chicago that was founded in 1870 as St. Ignatius College, with both university and preparatory programs for young men. While St. Ignatius transitioned to being solely a preparatory school and remained in the same location, Loyola Academy and University were established in Rogers Park. All three institutions were named after the Basque intellectual and a military officer in the army of a Duke, St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuits.

As a precondition to granting approval to move to the suburbs, the Archdiocese of Chicago required the Jesuits to stipulate that they would continue to serve the young Roman Catholic men of the city of Chicago. Consequently, Loyola Academy has had a significant representation of Chicago residents of various financial means, giving the school an economic diversity fairly unique in the Chicago area. This was achieved through the use of various scholarships and forms of financial aid.

Loyola Academy maintained the strict disciplinary and academic regimen seen in most of the exclusive American prep schools during the bulk of its history. Students were required to wear blazers and ties, maintain silence when moving between classes, attend weekly Mass on campus, address their teachers as either "sir" or "Father", and also maintain a demeanor befitting the Jesuit educational ideal of "Men for others."

One of Loyola's "sister schools" was Regina Dominican High School, an all-girls Academy located less than a mile away in Wilmette. Beginning in 1970, small groups of select Regina students began commuting to Loyola to take selected advanced science and computer science classes, as these classes were unavailable on their campus at the time.

The Jesuit presence has fallen off from what it once was, with some 40 priests teaching and working at the school in 1961, down to 11 out of roughly 200 staff members in 2007.[6] The priests left for a variety of reasons. Some left due to the child abuse cases surrounding the Catholic church.[7]

Loyola Academy affiliated with Saint Louise de Marillac High School, an all-girls high school from Northfield, Illinois and became co-educational in 1994. The affiliation was done for financial reasons. The President of Marillac was approached by Loyola to consider a co-ed option on the North Shore as requested by the Archdiocese.[8] About that same time, Loyola added on to their existing building. In 2003, Loyola Academy opened a new 60-acre (240,000 m2) campus in Glenview, Illinois. The property, near the decommissioned Glenview Naval Air Station (NAS Glenview), was purchased by Loyola in 2001[9] and now houses several athletic fields for lacrosse, baseball, softball, and soccer, a cross country path, and a wetland preserve area that has been used as a natural laboratory for science classes.

While Loyola Academy is a Jesuit, Catholic school, it has always admitted non-Catholics seeking a Loyola education.

Academics

Loyola Academy

Loyola Academy offers a comprehensive liberal arts curriculum with over 110 courses in language arts, fine arts (dance, music, theater, visual arts, and architecture), foreign languages (Spanish, French, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, and Ancient Greek), mathematics, physical education, science, social studies, and theology. (As it is a college-preparatory high school, it does not offer any true vocational courses.) The school has two competitive honors programs (the Dumbach Scholars and the Clavius Scholars) and a plethora of students enrolled in AP classes. Loyola also offers the O'Shaughnessy Program, which assists students who show the potential for success in college but may require smaller classes and extra help from teachers. Annually, about 99% of students are accepted by four-year universities.

The school fields a Certamen team and in 2005 six students received perfect scores on the National Latin Examination. Loyola is also very active in forensics, Scholastic Bowl, and Science Olympiad competitions. In 2013, Loyola's scholastic bowl team placed third at both NAQT HSNCT and PACE NSC, the best performance of a team from Illinois at both national championship tournaments.[10][11]

Athletics

Loyola Academy offers 16 women's sports and 17 men's sports. Its varsity teams are called the Ramblers, which copied from the nickname of the varsity teams at Loyola University. The school competes as a member of the CCL.

The men's lacrosse team won 11 State Titles and 11 runner ups with three straight championships with from 2002 to 2004, with its most recent in 2018.[12]

Prior to the IHSA Football Championships (1974), Loyola won the Prep Bowl in 1965, 1966, and 1969. Loyola won the IHSA State Championship in football in 1993, 2015, 2018, 2022, and 2023 and was runners-up in 1992, 2011, 2013, 2016, and 2017. Former football coach John Holecek led Ramblers to the state playoffs every year since 2006, including three of the last five Illinois State 8A Finals. In November 2011, the Loyola Academy football team lost to Bolingbrook in the class 8A Illinois State championship. On November 24, 2018 Loyola won the 2018 IHSA 8A Football Championship by beating Brother Rice High School 13–3. In 2022, Loyola won the IHSA Class 8A State Football Championship by beating undefeated Lincoln-Way East High School 13–3, marking their fourth state championship win.[13] Holecek resigned after the championship and was succeeded by Beau Desherow.[14] Former Northwestern Wildcats football head coach Pat Fitzgerald joined the Ramblers' head coaching staff as a parent volunteer, with his middle son, Ryan, serving as the team's starting quarterback.[14] In 2023, Loyola Academy went undefeated and beat Lincoln-Way East High School again to capture their fifth state championship win.[15]

In 2014 Loyola won the Illinois State Girls Swimming Championship and defeated Fenwick 11-10 (OT) to capture the IHSA Boys Water Polo State Championship. The Ramblers were also State Water Polo Champions in 1978.

Loyola has had a storied history in rowing. In 2017, the Boys' Junior 8+ won the SRAA National Championships.[16]

The girls lacrosse team won the 2023 IHSA state championship over Hinsdale Central.[17]

Notable alumni

Athletics

Politics and public service

Arts and letters

Business and technology

Television

Notable staff

Notes

References

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  2. ^ "Kathryn Baal out as Loyola Academy principal; replacement named". Chicago Tribune. Wilmette Life. 24 July 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Wilmette (Loyola Academy)". Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 20 November 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2009.
  4. ^ "Prep". Loyola Academy. Archived from the original on 7 January 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2009.
  5. ^ NCA-CASI. "AdvanceEd-NCA Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement". Retrieved 23 May 2009.[dead link]
  6. ^ Leavitt, Irv (25 October 2007). "Alumni reflect on their days at Loyola Academy". Wilmette Life. Wilmette, Illinois: Pioneer Press. 40 in 1961 to 11 now
  7. ^ Noel, Josh (17 February 2006). "40 years later, legal twist puts priest on trial". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  8. ^ Closed school.
  9. ^ Black, Lisa (1 February 2001). "Loyola Academy Buys 60 Acres at Landfill Site For Use As Athletic Fields". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  10. ^ "2013 High School National Championship Tournament". National Academic Quiz Tournaments. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  11. ^ "2013 NSC Stats and Final Standings". Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  12. ^ "IHSLA Awards Archive". Illinois High School LaCrosse Association. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
  13. ^ Carpinelli, Mark (27 November 2022). "Illinois high school football championships Saturday recap". ScoreBookLive. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  14. ^ a b O, Michael (17 August 2023). "Former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald is a volunteer assistant at Loyola Academy this season". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
  15. ^ O'Brien, Michael (26 November 2023). "Loyola holds off Lincoln-Way East to repeat as Class 8A state champions". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
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  20. ^ George Bon Salle Archived 22 December 2005 at the Wayback Machine at Loyola Academy Athletic Hall of Fame. Retrieved 24 August 2007.
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  43. ^ Bob Skoglund stats & bio; database-football.com; accessed 19 June 2009 Archived 10 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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External links

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