Brophy College Preparatory - History

History

The school was founded in 1928 by Mrs. Henry Brophy in memory of her late husband as a Jesuit high school with first year college courses. The Regis Hall building (renamed Frank C. Brophy Jr. Hall in 2006), the Jesuit Residence and the Chapel were completed in 1928, and the school began operating that same year as a college and high school. The school operated successfully for a year but the subsequent Great Depression put a major financial strain on the institution, forcing it to close in 1935. Most of the male students who previously attended Brophy transferred to another local Catholic high school, St. Mary's, which had become an all-girls school once Brophy opened. The boys brought their athletic gear from Brophy with them to St. Mary's, causing St. Mary's to change its colors from red and white to green and white, the previous Brophy colors. In 1952, 17 years after its closing, Brophy College Preparatory reopened exclusively as a high school. They purchased used athletic equipment from Santa Clara University, whose colors happened to be red and white, the old St. Mary's colors. This is also how they became the Brophy Broncos, using the Santa Clara Mascot. Brophy expanded its downtown Phoenix campus by adding Loyola Hall (1959), Robson Gymnasium (1967), Keating Hall and the Steele Library (1986). In recent years Brophy's president has been able to raise a lot of capital through the major gifts campaign which has allowed for the construction of the Information Commons (2001), the Eller Fine Arts Center (2003), the McCain Colonnade (2003), the Piper Center for Math and Science (2005), and the Harper Great Hall (2006). The Ethel and Kemper Marley Information Commons replaced the Steele Library as the information source on campus.

In November 2002, Brophy acquired the former Phoenix Swim Club for use as a sports campus. It is now called The Dottie Boreyko/Brophy East Swim Campus. The facilities of this 10-acre (40,000 m2) campus include two outdoor swimming pools (one of them Olympic and equipped with two underwater viewing rooms), a 400-meter training track, a soccer field, a running track and locker rooms. The school now leads the state in football, lacrosse, and swimming.

In 2010, Brophy completed construction on the state-of-the-art Brophy Sports Campus, featuring a synthetic turf field, a track formed with material used at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, and an expansive natural turf practice field. The completion of the Brophy Sports Campus marks the first phase of a plan to upgrade all of the school's athletic facilities.