Without question, this is the sport that put St. George on the map. Under Coach Max Burnell, the Dragons were 136-50-12 in the 20 years he was the head coach. Our good friend Tom Sikorski tells us that the school won two Prep Bowl titles, eight Catholic League division titles, had nine appearances in the Catholic League championship game, plus won two conference titles in the Chicagoland Prep Conference. 

 

The Catholic League was not part of the IHSA in 1961 and its teams could not participate in state tournaments in any sports. Because they wanted to participate on the state level, St. George and three other schools left to form the Chicagoland Prep Conference. 

 

As a head coach, Burnell's teams won 303, lost 92, and tied 21 in 36 years of action at four different schools, including St. George. He was inducted into several different Halls of Fame: the Chicago Catholic League in 1972, the Illinois High School Football Coaches' Association in 1990, and Loyola Academy in 1994. 

 

Tom informs us that the earliest information about football at the school goes back to 1940, although it is believed to have gone back further. Here are the better marks of Dragon teams from 1940 thru 1968. 

 

 

1940   6-1-1  2nd place in Catholic League North   Coach unknown

1941   6-2     3rd place in Catholic League South   Coach unknown

 

                    Won coin flip to decide who would face Phillips in Prep Bowl 

(Also beat Mount St. Michael's of Bronx, NY 25-20 in special interdivisional game at the Polo Grounds in New York following the Prep Bowl)

 

1944  6-3-1   5th place in North Division                Coach Max Burnell 

                     Lost to Oak Park Fenwick 18-6 in playoff game

 

The Dragons, even though their school did not belong to the IHSA at the time, had one of the best runners in the nation in 1961. Tom Sullivan ran the 1600 in 4:02.4 (a converted time from mile of 4:03.5 to 1600 meters), which was the nation's best until future Olympian Jim Ryun broke the record three years later at 3:59.0. Tom also had a time of 1:49.9 in the 800 meters that season, plus posted the best indoor time in the 1000 yards at 2:10.5 (also set in 1961), which lasted 11 years. For his efforts, Sullivan shared the Track & Field News' Athlete of the Year award that year with Ulis Williams (a 440-yard runner) from Compton, CA. 

 

Even though we haven't been able to find anything close to a win-loss record and names of coaches, there was basketball at St. George. In fact, its' lightweight team won the Catholic League title in 1938-39, while two varsity teams either shared or won a title outright as the best in the league. 

 

 

1952-53   Catholic League Varsity Champions

One of its alumni is Tony Barone, who graduated in 1964 and attended Duke University, where he was named Academic All-American.

 

Barone would stay involved with the game as an assistant coach at three Chicago Catholic League high schools (including St. George), before going to the collegiate level as an assistant at Duke and Bradley, plus was head coach at Creighton and Texas A & M. Barone also served as interim head coach of the Nashville Grizzlies after serving as their director of player development. If you know more about the Dragons' basketball program, please contact us.

 

 

This may sound peculiar, but it was a common practice for schools to have a boxing team years ago. St. George had one that ran from the time the school opened until sometime into the 1930's. Athletic Director Jake Drees was head coach, and unfortunately passed away while he was instructing his team, according to this link from a family website: http://heckenbach.org/Drees.html,

 

During the spring of 1943, St. George was one of seven Catholic League schools that played softball instead of baseball as an experiment on account of the success that Catholic Youth Organizations were having with the sport. The Dragons were crowned champions with a win-loss mark of 6-1, in spite of the fact that half of the Catholic League games were cancelled due to the rain and incliment weather that spring.

  

 

The Dragons took to the pool along with other Catholic League teams to compete, and came away with one conference title. Names of coaches and other swimmers are unknown.