Founded in 1828 to educate African American children, it is the first and oldest continually operating Black Catholic school in the United States.

[9] The football program was founded in 2008, with one initial $60,000 contribution coming from Gilman School coach Biff Poggi.

After Poggi took over as head coach in 2017, he began aggressively recruiting talented players from inside and outside Maryland, to a greater degree than other private schools in the state.

Within a few seasons, St. Frances became effectively unbeatable by their traditional opponents in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) (which they won in 2016 and 2017), regularly defeating them by wide margins.

Some St. Frances supporters believe the opponents' real motives were racial, since there had been no complaints when predominantly white teams such as Gilman had been similarly successful in earlier seasons.

The St. Frances team continued its winning ways, finishing the following season in the top 5 of MaxPreps' 10 national rankings.