Loyola has now appeared...

...in five of the last seven 8A championship games, winning the title in 2015. That's pretty good, isn't it?

Not for my brothers, apparently, one of whom played on that storied 1965 City Championship team (back in the Stone Age, before they had a state tournament). On Sunday morning my other brother -- not a Loyola alum -- texted me:

1-4. Not that impressive. With the numbers and money they have not sure any other school is as blessed.

(To be honest, I think he was just trolling our other brother. Families are like that.)

But let's take that seriously for just a second. (It's kind of a slow news day.) Who else has performed as well as Loyola in recent years? And is it true that the Wilmette school is "blessed" with more "numbers and money" than its competitors? Here are the results of the last ten 8A championship games. (I'll confine this to 8A; the news isn't that slow.)

2017: Lincoln-Way East 23, Loyola 14
2016: Maine South 27, Loyola 17
2015: Loyola 41, Marist 0
2014: Stevenson 31, Homewood-Flossmoor 25
2013: Naperville Central 13, Loyola 10
2012: Mount Carmel 28, Glenbard North 14
2011: Bolingbrook 21, Loyola 17
2010: Maine South 28, Mount Carmel 7
2009: Maine South 41, Marist 17
2008: Maine South 41, Hinsdale Central 21

The Ramblers, as you can see, have appeared in five of those title games, while Maine South has been in four but only once in the last seven.

(I said I'd only talk about 8A, but in fairness, Lincoln-Way East was in the 7A championship in 2012 and Mount Carmel has played in either the 8A or 7A contests in 2010, 2012 and 2013. The others have been in 8A the whole time.)

So who's done better than Loyola? I can't find anyone. In the last seven years, seven different teams have brought home the 8A crown. You have to go all the way back to 2008-10 (the Iron Age) when Maine South won three straight to find a dominant team.

What about my brother's contention that Loyola is uniquely "blessed" with "numbers and money"? Baloney. Sure, Loyola is the largest private school in the state and seems to reload every year. (I've often thought that while the Ramblers don't seem to produce a lot of Division I prospects, they sure seem to turn out a lot of D3s. And I wonder -- seriously -- how they'd do against one of the lesser D3 programs.) But if you're talking "numbers and money" no one takes a back seat to the likes of Stevenson (one of the largest schools in the state and the choice, it seems, of many of the offspring of Chicago's professional athletes), Homewood-Flossmoor, Naperville Central or Hinsdale Central. Even Lincoln-Way East and Bolingbrook seem well-heeled to me. (Have you seen their stadiums? And how many sets of uniforms does the Brook have? Does the University of Oregon have as many?)

So, no, Loyola doesn't have any special advantages and even plays in arguably the most competitive conference in the state. (Three of the five teams made it as far as the semifinals this year and one to the quarterfinals.) If you go back ten years then, yeah, Maine South has done better than them, but other than that, the Ramblers have done as well as, or better than, anyone else in recent years. Give credit where credit is due: head coach John Holecek has done a pretty darn good job.