University Interscholastic League - History

History

The UIL was originally created by UT in 1910 as two different entities, the Debating League of Texas High Schools (to govern debating contests) and the Interscholastic Athletic Association (to govern athletic contests). The two entities merged in 1913 and adopted the UIL name.

At the time, UIL only governed white schools in Texas. From 1940 to 1970, an era of racial segregation in Texas, the Prairie View Interscholastic League (PVIL), headquartered at Prairie View A&M University, served as a separate parallel organization for African-American public high schools in Texas.

In 1965. the UIL agreed to admit PVIL member schools for competition. Black schools began UIL competition beginning in the 1967-68 school year. After the 1969-70 school year, the UIL fully absorbed all PVIL member schools, the majority of which would later be merged with their white counterparts.

Beginning with the 2003-2004 academic school year, two large all-male private schools, Dallas Jesuit and Houston Strake Jesuit of Houston, were granted UIL membership. This came after extensive court battles and negotiations from both the UIL's lawyers and the schools' joint lawyers. Previously, both schools were members of the now-defunct Texas Christian Interscholastic League (TCIL); after that league's demise and their inability to gain admittance into the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) or Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC), they decided to further pursue their decade-long battle of gaining membership into the UIL. They are so far the only private schools to be granted UIL membership, as the new UIL rules established after the Jesuit schools' entry prohibited those schools who were eligible for memberships in other similar associations (such as TAPPS or the SPC) to apply. However, Cornerstone Christian School of San Antonio, a former TAPPS member who was refused re-entry after excessive recruiting violations, recently attempted to gain entry to the UIL, claiming eligibility on the basis that they were ineligible to join TAPPS as that organization refused to accept them as a member; the case was later dismissed.

The Texas Legislature rewrote titles 1 and 2 of the Texas Education Code and greatly restricted the functions to be performed by the Texas Education Agency and the UIL. The changes made Texas an equal access state. The law now requires the public schools to allow all students that reside within the schools boundary equal access to all activities. The Senate also made amendments that expressly regulate the UIL and invalidated certain UIL rules limiting student eligibility for competitions by providing that UIL rules would only apply to a student enrolled in the public school. The UIL no longer has the authority to determine the eligibility of Charter/Home/Private school students.

All students must abide by the state No-Pass No-Play law. Only students that are enrolled in the public school must abide by UIL eligibility rules, even if the activity is not a UIL event.

REF: eligibility rules for TMEA - http://www.tmea.org/programs/all-state/eligibility.

Charter/Home/Private school students may now participate in all public school extra-curricular activities. Note: In 2008 two non-public school students won UIL wrestling championships.

On 10/10/10 the Third District Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the UIL operates as a public organization not a private organization. The ruling clarified that the UIL is legally considered a state agency and must comply with the prerequisites and duties that all other state agencies have. As a state agent the UIL must treat individuals equally and show the purpose/need as well as a rational basis for eligibility restrictions.