St. Rita of Cascia High School...

...is at 77th and Western on the South Side of Chicago. The all-boys' school was founded in 1905 by the Augustinians and was originally located at 63rd and Claremont. St. Rita moved to its present location after Quigley Seminary closed its doors in 1990.

The drive to St. Rita took me over two hours in rush hour traffic on Friday. (I asked myself more than once if it was worth it. It was.) I got off the Stevenson at Damen and, after a quick jog on Archer, turned left onto Western Avenue. (Except it turned out there were two parallel Western Avenues. I'd never seen that before. Must be a South Side thing.) Anyway, since I was ahead of schedule (despite the traffic) I decided to take a small detour past the original location. The site was sold to the Chicago Board of Education and no evidence of the prior school remains.

When St. Rita decided to take over the old Quigley property, its principal stated, "We could not afford to let another high school open there. We felt that that would be such a threat to us that we would be in danger of closing." Uh huh. That, and the fact that St. Rita's neighborhood was "changing," or to be more precise, had changed. And, in fairness, to survive St. Rita needed to be closer to its feeder schools on the Southwest Side. (Honestly, I wonder how much longer the same pool of kids will commute all the way to Mount Carmel in the Woodlawn neighborhood.)

I got back on Western Avenue for the last leg of my trip and a few minutes later St. Rita (above) emerged, suddenly, on the west side of the street. I did a victory lap around the property before parking my car to get the lay of the land. (Big mistake; there's some sort of industrial yard to the west of the campus that goes on forever. It took me longer than necessary to park and I'm sure I missed some great spots in the process.)

After leaving my car I decided to take the long way to the stadium in order to get a closer look at the grounds. The most prominent building on campus is the chapel on Western Avenue. (Sorry to post the same picture twice, but it was really a beautiful structure, especially with the October sun setting behind it.) The cornerstone said it was built in 1961. Turns out Quigley South was founded that year; I would have thought much earlier.

As I made my way into Pat Cronin Field at Doyle Stadium I walked past a short wall constructed of bricks from the original stadium on the old campus. The St. Rita players walk around the wall in a pregame ritual before taking the field. (There's lots of tradition here. The 1971 team, the Greatest in St. Rita History, was honored at the half.)

The sophomore game was tied 16-all as I approached the concession stand for my dinner of (strictly vegan) hot dogs, chips and -- as the sign said -- "coffee in season." The guys behind the counter were -- like everyone else that night -- especially polite, almost deferential to me. (I can only think it's because I look so old.)

I took my seat just as Carmel sophomore Jimmy Mickens ran about 70 yards for the winning touchdown with only seconds to go. (I guess he's the next Brandon Greer.) And this was shortly after Mustang defensive back Tom Brennan picked off a Caravan pass to kill the previous drive.

The varsity game started promptly at 7:30 and both teams came out passing. (This is not your father's Catholic League.) Don Butkus, despite fumbling twice, looked better than I remember him and found receiver Jason Gasser several times. Where's this kid Gasser been hiding? (In the second half Carmel went back to its option offense and came up empty-handed. Why did Coach Frank Lenti stop passing?)

On Carmel's first possession the Caravan decided to go for it on fourth-and-one at midfield. This elicited quite a reaction from the old guy sitting next to me. "NO RESPECT!," he shouted. There's a lot of pride in this rivalry.

Brandon Greer -- surprise, surprise -- scored the lone touchdown for the Caravan in the first quarter. But Kenny Golladay and Mike Zunica caught TD passes for the Mustangs to put them up 14-7 at the half. A late field goal by John Kelly made the final score 17-7. St. Rita is now 7-1 and faces Loyola in Wilmette next Saturday. (Ramblers should win; more on that later.)

I have just a few observations from the game. First of all, neither Don Butkus nor Rita quarterback Scott Thomas is in the same league as Malcolm Weaver of Loyola or Blake Winkler of Lincoln-Way East. This is going to hold them back in the playoffs. (I'd say St. Rita lasts one more round than Mt. Carmel.)

Secondly, both teams hit hard. It's enough to make me reconsider what I've said about Catholic League kids not being any tougher than other conferences. I've never seen a game with so many hard hits.

Lastly, the most impressive kid on the field was Mustang running back Tim Lombard, above. The junior rushed for 85 yards on 28 carries and I would have sworn it was much more. He seemed to be the go-to guy for St. Rita and would have gotten my vote for Player of the Game. Watch out for this guy, Loyola!

This post would not be complete without a word on the atmosphere of the game. I already mentioned St. Rita's feeder schools, but I can't overstate the importance of this relationship. The roster, for example, lists each player's number, position, etc. and the grammar school in which he attended. That's something you don't see everywhere. And while some of the names were familiar to me, some sounded truly exotic, such as St. Bede the Venerable, Queen of the Universe, and St. Mary Star of the Sea.

I mentioned before my concern about Mt. Carmel's future, but you can just tell from sitting in the stands that the pipelines will remain in tact. (For one thing, I'm sure that kids are encouraged to attend their father's alma mater.) In the row in front of me sat two young-ish fathers (everyone's young nowadays) with their football jersey-wearing sons. One had MARTYRS on his while the other had CARDINALS. One of the fathers had SC CARDINALS on his jacket and I figured it stood for St. Christina's in Mt. Greenwood. Other kids at the game had jerseys with CHRIST THE KING and ST. BARNABAS on them.

This is a very tightly-knit community; I think I finally understand what the pastor at our Catholic church meant when he used to wax nostalgically about "the Great South Side."
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One final note on my trip down south: I passed Leo High School on 79th Street on my way back to the Dan Ryan Expressway. It looked ... old. I thought to myself, who still goes there? Turns out it's predominantly African-American, according to Wikipedia. The school was founded in 1926 (and looks it) by the Christian Brothers of Ireland. It was their first high school in Chicago. Again, from the article:

The school colors are black and orange. Since Leo was founded, the Irish Christian Brothers have established two more boys' schools, Brother Rice and St. Laurence. As a sign of respect for Leo, Brother Rice took the orange in addition to maroon for its school colors, and St. Laurence took black in addition to gold for its colors. Brother Rice and St. Laurence are often called the "Sons of Leo."