The conference's alumni include stars of the past like Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Lattner, Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Denny McLain and Basketball Hall of Fame member Moose Krause and more contemporary athletes such as former NBA player Corey Maggette and All-Pro quarterback Donovan McNabb, Antoine Walker.
The girls teams from Bishop McNamara, Fenwick, and Providence compete in the East Suburban Catholic Conference.
[1] Representatives of eight schools met at the Great Northern Hotel—De Paul Academy, St Ignatius Academy, St Rita College, St. Cyril College (which would become Mount Carmel High School), Cathedral High, St. Philip High, Loyola Academy, and De La Salle Institute — but could not get together on the particulars to form a football–only league.
In the third week of November, the schools managed to form a league and drew up a schedule of games in basketball and indoor baseball.
By the spring when a baseball schedule was drawn up, Holy Trinity had joined the league, but Cathedral dropped out, leaving an eight-team circuit.
By the following year, league champion De Paul, felt feisty enough to invite St. John's Preparatory from Danvers, Massachusetts, to Chicago to engage in an intersectional contest.
De Paul narrowly lost the game, but it demonstrated to the league that its program was thriving.
Two years later De Paul traveled to Boston and met Beverly High in Fenway Park, destroying the team 30–7.
By the late 1950s some of the Catholic League members were growing restive, wanting to participate in the state tournaments sponsored by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA).
Because of their membership in the IHSA, the 29-year-old tradition of a Catholic League All-Star basketball game ended in 1974.
Every school from the East Suburban was in the conference except Nazareth Academy and Marian Central Catholic.
Prior to that, a high school state championship was sponsored by Illinois Water Polo.
Carmel and Carl Schurz High School drew an estimated 50,000 fans; the largest crowd to see a prep football contest in American history, up to that time.
[18] Bishop McNamara Brother Rice DeLaSalle DePaul Academy Fenwick Gordon Tech Hales Franciscan Holy Cross Leo Loyola Academy Mount Carmel St. George St. Ignatius St. Laurence St. Mel St. Rita Providence Catholic Weber