I was back at Loyola Chicago last night for the Jesuit Cup game between Loyola Academy and St. Ignatius College Prep. As I walking into the Gentile Arena, I looked about the playing field, or what was the playing field when I went to Loyola, and saw Dumbach Hall, where I had quite a few classes back in the day.
Dumbach Hall was the original home of the Loyola Academy high school before it moved out to Wilmette in 1957. Now the Wilmette Ramblers basketball team was once again back home to take on the original Jesuit high school in Chicago, the Saint Ignatius College Prep Wolfpack.
The legendary Dutch Jesuit priest Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J., for whom Damen Avenue is named, founded Holy Family Church in 1957 serving largely Irish immigrant families in the rough and tumble Chicago of the pre-Civil War era.
Fr. Damen opend St. Ignatius College right after the Civil War in 1869 which then was a high school and a college. The college later moved up to the Rogers Park and became Loyola University.
The St. Ignatius and Loyola Academy have a common history and considerable rivalry.
Mind you, my Irish immigrant family wasn’t quite fancy enough to be part of the St. Ignatius and Loyola high schools. But my sister and I did make it into Jesuit colleges. She is a lot smarter than me so when to Georgetown. II was just smart enough to get into what was then called Loyola University of Chicago. Now it’s just, Loyola University Chicago.
The full history of the Jesuit Cup illudes me. We will have to leave that story for next year.
This year, as in at least the last two years, the game has been at Loyola University’s Gentile Arena, a great intimate place to watch a basketball game. Gentile has great light for taking photos—the most important part of high school basketball.
The Wolfpack came into tonight’s Jesuit Cup ranked #11 with a 7-0 record. They have excellent players and are well coached. The Ramblers were 6-3 and just getting their football players back from a back-to-back-to-back 8A state football championship.
Loyola has won ten out of the last 11 Jesuit Cup games. The student body was fired up for the game.
St. Ignatius was there in force as well. Both school communities enjoy the rivalry. The Gentile Center was rocking.
The Ramblers jumped out to an early lead. Ignatius chipped away at is slowing, only getting their first and only lead of the game, 42-41, with 2:50 left in the game. For the next couple minutes, it was back and forth. Tied 45-45, the Ramblers called time out with under 10 seconds to play. They lined up their play and inbounded the ball. With tremendous front court pressure from St. Ignatius resembling a pack of wolves, Rambler junior guard Sam Golden took a pass and seconds on the clock and the game on the line throw a shot from beyond the arc. The shot banked in off the glass as time expired.
48-45 Loyola wins.
“That was a little bit of a coming out party for Sam Golden. He made some big shots all game long. Like Sam said, ‘That was in all the way,’” said Rambler head coach Tom Livatino.
“It’s the biggest game of the season. It’ always circled at the start of the season,” Sam Golden said of the Jesuit Cup game. “
We always look forward to it and always try to win and play our hearts out. I used to come every year.”
If you haven’t been to a Jesuit Cup game at the Gentile Center, I highly recommend it. It’s high school basketball at its best.
St. Ignatius might want to move the next one to Marquette or St. Louis University just to break up the Ramblers’ 11 out of 12 mojo from being across the lawn from their original home. Just a thought.
