Jesuit High School (New Orleans) - Sports

Sports

Since 1933, Jesuit has won many state championships in football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. The 1946 athletic year yielded undefeated state champions in baseball, basketball, track and field, and football all coached by G. Gernon Brown. It has been said that Jesuit had "All the Tricks in '46." In the 2004–2005 school year, Jesuit won state championships in baseball, cross country, soccer, tennis, wrestling, rugby, and swimming, and went to the state playoffs in football with an undefeated regular season. In 2005, Jesuit became the first 5A school in Louisiana history to win three state championships in a row in the sport of cross country. In 2006, they continued with an unprecedented 4th cross country state championship. Jesuit Swimming holds the LHSAA record for most consecutive state championships in any sport, with 18 straight. As of November 20, 2010, Jesuit Swimming has captured 36 state championships. The streak was broken in 2005, when the team, still feeling the effects of Hurricane Katrina, was only able to field 12 swimmers, yet still managed to come in second place, only a few points out of first. In 2006, however, the team was able to recapture the state championship. In August 2012, Jesuit's baseball team won the American Legion World Series. Jesuit's American Legion teams also won the national championship in 1946 and 1960.

In football, Jesuit High School vs. Holy Cross High School is the oldest continuous high school rivalry in Louisiana and one of the oldest continuous high school football rivalries in the United States. The first game was played in 1922 (Jesuit won by 52–0) and the two teams have played every year since (twice in 1963: once in regular season and another time for the state crown which Holy Cross won) Blue Jays vs. Tigers.

In February 1965, Jesuit's all-white basketball team played a secret game against St. Augustine, the city's all-male, all-black high school. The Purple Knights won the game, which was the basis for the 1999 motion picture Passing Glory. Jesuit won the 1965 Louisiana High School Athletic Association state championship in Class AAA, which was at the time the state's highest classification, while St. Augustine won the championship of the Louisiana Interscholastic and Literary Organization, the sanctioning body for the state's black schools. In the fall of 1967, St. Augustine joined the LHSAA and became a rival for the Blue Jays in the New Orleans Catholic League through the 2010-11 school year, when the Purple Knights were forced down to Class 4A by the LHSAA.

In the 1998–1999 season, and again in the 2006–2007 season, Jesuit fielded one of the best soccer teams in the nation, winning the Louisiana state title and in both cases posting an incredible 31-0-0 record. This record gave the Jesuit team a #3 (1998–99) and a #2 (2006–2007) rank in the nation. In the 2007–2008 season, the rugby team won the State Championship for the sixth consecutive year with an undefeated season, only allowing 12 points while scoring over 300. Because of a conflict with the senior prom, the team was forced to play in the more difficult multi-school division at the Southern Regionals in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The team swept regionals and moved on to become 8th in the country in the multi-school division at the USA Rugby Boys High School National Championship.