Loyola Academy was founded as a Roman Catholic, Jesuit, college preparatory school for young men in 1909. The school was originally located inthe Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, on the campus ofLoyola University Chicago's Dumbach Hall; it moved to the current Wilmette campus in 1957. Both Loyola University and its prep school adjunct, Loyola Academy, grew out ofSt. Ignatius College Prep, a Roman Catholic, Jesuit college preparatory school in Chicago that was founded in 1870 as St. Ignatius College, with both university and preparatory programs for young men. While St. Ignatius transitioned to being solely a preparatory school and remained in the same location, Loyola Academy and University were established in Rogers Park. All three institutions were named after the Basque intellectual and a military officer in the army of a Duke,St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded theJesuits.
As a precondition to granting approval to move to the suburbs, the Archdiocese of Chicago required the Jesuits to stipulate that they would continue to serve the young Roman Catholic men of the city of Chicago. Consequently, Loyola Academy has had a significant representation of Chicago residents of various financial means, giving the school an economic diversity fairly unique in the Chicago area. This was achieved through the use of various scholarships and forms of financial aid.
One of Loyola's "sister schools" was Regina Dominican High School, an all-girls Academy located less than a mile away in Wilmette. Beginning in 1970, small groups of select Regina students began commuting to Loyola to take selected advanced science and computer science classes, as these classes were unavailable on their campus at the time.
The Jesuit presence has fallen off from what it once was, with some 40 priests teaching and working at the school in 1961, down to 11 out of roughly 200 staff members in 2007.[6] The priests left for a variety of reasons. Some left due to thechild abuse cases surrounding the Catholic church.[7]
Loyola Academy affiliated withSaint Louise de Marillac High School, an all-girls high school fromNorthfield, Illinois and becameco-educational in 1994. The affiliation was done for financial reasons. The President of Marillac was approached by Loyola to consider a co-ed option on the North Shore as requested by the Archdiocese.[8] About that same time, Loyola added on to their existing building. In 2003, Loyola Academy opened a new 60-acre (240,000 m2) campus inGlenview, Illinois. The property, near the decommissionedGlenview Naval Air Station (NAS Glenview), was purchased by Loyola in 2001[9] and now houses several athletic fields for lacrosse, baseball, softball, and soccer, across country path, and awetland preserve area that has been used as a naturallaboratory for science classes.
While Loyola Academy is a Jesuit, Catholic school, it has always admitted non-Catholics seeking a Loyola education.
Loyola Academy offers a comprehensiveliberal artscurriculum with over 110 courses inlanguage arts,fine arts (dance, music, theater,visual arts, andarchitecture),foreign languages (Spanish, French, Latin,Mandarin Chinese, andAncient Greek), mathematics,physical education, science,social studies, andtheology. (As it is a college-preparatory high school, it does not offer any truevocational courses.) The school has two competitive honors programs (the Dumbach Scholars and the Clavius Scholars) and a plethora of students enrolled inAP classes. Loyola also offers the O'Shaughnessy Program, which assists students who show the potential for success in college but may require smaller classes and extra help from teachers. Annually, about 99% of students are accepted by four-yearuniversities.
The school fields aCertamen team and in 2005 six students received perfect scores on the National Latin Examination. Loyola is also very active inforensics,Scholastic Bowl, andScience Olympiad competitions. In 2013, Loyola's scholastic bowl team placed third at bothNAQT HSNCT andPACE NSC, the best performance of a team from Illinois at both national championship tournaments.[10][11]
Loyola Academy offers 16 women's sports and 17 men's sports. Its varsity teams are called the Ramblers, which copied from the nickname of the varsity teams atLoyola University. The school competes as a member of theCCL.
The men'slacrosse team won 11 State Titles and 11 runner ups with three straight championships with from 2002 to 2004, with its most recent in 2018.[12]
Prior to the IHSA Football Championships (1974), Loyola won thePrep Bowl in 1965, 1966, and 1969. Loyola won the IHSA State Championship in football in 1993, 2015, 2018, 2022, 2023, and 2024 and was runners-up in 1992, 2011, 2013, 2016, and 2017. Former football coachJohn Holecek led Ramblers to the state playoffs every year since 2006, including three of the last five Illinois State 8A Finals. In November 2011, the Loyola Academy football team lost to Bolingbrook in the class 8A Illinois State championship. On November 24, 2018 Loyola won the 2018 IHSA 8A Football Championship by beating Brother Rice High School 13–3. In 2022, Loyola won the IHSA Class 8A State Football Championship by beating undefeatedLincoln-Way East High School 13–3, marking their fourth state championship win.[13] Holecek resigned after the championship and was succeeded by Beau Desherow.[14] FormerNorthwestern Wildcats football head coachPat Fitzgerald joined the Ramblers' head coaching staff as a parent volunteer, with his middle son, Ryan, serving as the team's starting quarterback.[14] In 2023, Loyola Academy went undefeated and beat Lincoln-Way East High School again to capture their fifth state championship win.[15] In 2024, Loyola Academy defeatedYork Community High School to capture their third-consecutive state championship.[16]
In 2014 Loyola won the Illinois State Girls Swimming Championship and defeated Fenwick 11-10 (OT) to capture the IHSA Boys Water Polo State Championship. The Ramblers were also State Water Polo Champions in 1978.
Loyola has had a storied history inrowing. In 2017, the Boys' Junior 8+ won the SRAA National Championships.[17]
The girls lacrosse team won the 2023 IHSA state championship over Hinsdale Central.[18]
Conor Dwyer is a swimmer who was a gold medalist in the 4*200 freestyle relay at the2012 Summer Olympics as well as the gold medalist in the 4*200m freestyle and bronze medalist in the 200m freestyle in the2016 Summer Olympics.[22]
^Leavitt, Irv (25 October 2007). "Alumni reflect on their days at Loyola Academy".Wilmette Life. Wilmette, Illinois: Pioneer Press.40 in 1961 to 11 now
^Helfgot, Mike (22 October 2009)."Prep football: No. 5 St. Rita at No. 10 Loyola".Chicago Tribune. Retrieved21 November 2009.The coach is John Holecek, a former Marian Catholic and University of Illinois star who played Kelly's middle linebacker position in the NFL from 1995 through 2002.
