History
Origins of the Chicago Public League can be traced back to its predecessor, the Cook County High School League, which started during 1889-90. Some of the schools that participated in the Cook County League still exist today: Crane (as English High and Manual Training), Englewood, Lincoln Park (as North Division), Hyde Park, Phillips (as South Division), Calumet, Marshall, Austin, Lake (now Tilden), and Lake View. Three other schools from this League have since gone to other leagues around the area: University High, which plays in the Independent League, Lyons Township High of LaGrange and Oak Park High, both of which now play in the West Suburban Conference.
The Chicago Public High School League was formed in the summer of 1913, when the Cook County High School League broke apart as a result of the Chicago Board of Education desire to be responsible for a league in which all the schools would be under its jurisdiction. The suburban schools joined by University High formed the Suburban League (Chicago area).
In the first 15 years of the Public league's history a full plethora of sports were offered. The dominant powers were such traditional powers as Hyde Park, Lane Tech, Crane Tech, Englewood, joined by new powers Senn, Lindblom, Schurz, and Tilden Tech. The mid-1920s saw the adoption of such exotic sports as gymnastics, rifle marksmanship, fencing, indoor golf, and speed skating, but none of these sports ever attracted more than a small percentage of the schools.
During the 1920s, the Chicago Public League, which had unofficially abided by the Illinois High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) ban on all girls interscholastic contests, began to relax its strictures against interscholastic sports for girls. The league in 1922 began sponsoring tennis, golf, and swimming competition, and became lax in its ban on the other sports, so that the girls began interschool competition in basketball, volleyball, and softball. However, when the CPL schools began joining the IHSAA in 1926 (so as to participate in the state golf, tennis, and track and field contests, in which the IHSAA that year assumed joint sponsorship with the University of Illinois) the league then ended its sponsorship of girls' golf, tennis, and swimming, and cracked down on girls' interscholastic contests in the other sports. The CPL did not return to girls' interscholastics until the early 1970s, with the passage of Title IX by the federal government in 1972.
Beginning with the Great Migration coming in the 1920s, a number of schools became predominantly African American, notably Phillips (started as South Division), DuSable (started as New Phillips), Dunbar, Forrestville (now King), Carver; and later into the second half of the 20th century with Julian, Simeon, Curie, Orr, and Kennedy.
The advent of charter schools in the late 1990s and early 2000s yet saw another expansion of the league as schools such as CICS, Noble Street, and ACE Technical Charter High School were included. The CPL as it stands today is very diverse with nearly every major nationality and race represented in all sports.
Read more about this topic: Chicago Public High School League
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