Baltimore City College athletics

Last updated
The Baltimore City College varsity letter The bcc b.JPG
The Baltimore City College varsity letter

Interscholastic athletics at Baltimore City College date back over 120 years. Though varsity sports were not formally organized until 1895, interscholastic athletics became a fixture at the school earlier in the 19th century. [1] In the late-1890s, City competed in the Maryland Intercollegiate Football Association (MIFA), a nine-member league consisting of colleges in Washington, D.C., and Maryland. [2] City College was the lone secondary school among MIFA membership. The 1895 football schedule included St. John's College, Swarthmore College, the United States Naval Academy, University of Maryland, and Washington College. [3] Between 1894 and 1920, City College regularly faced off against the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays and the Navy Midshipmen in lacrosse. [4] [5]

Contents

Baltimore City College began competing against other secondary schools in 1919 when it was invited to join the Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA) as a founding member. [6] After 75 years of governing Baltimore-metro area boys' high school athletics, the Maryland Scholastic Association dissolved in 1993 when its 15 public school members, including City College, withdrew from the league to join the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA). [7] The Knights currently compete with other public secondary schools in the MPSSAA (Class 3A, North Region, District 9), more commonly referred to as the Baltimore City League (Division 1), but routinely schedule contests against area private schools in various sports.

The current City College varsity athletic program consists of 18 sports: six for boys, eight for girls, and five coeducational teams. The boys' sports includes baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, soccer, and wrestling. The girls' sports are badminton, basketball, lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, softball, and volleyball. The five co-ed sports are cross country, indoor track and field, swimming, outdoor track and field, and tennis. Girls' sports were added to City's athletic department in the fall of 1978 when the school became coeducational for the first time in its then-139-year-old history.

The school's athletic teams are currently outfitted by Under Armour. [8]

Championships

Baltimore City College's championship pedigree predates World War I. Since winning its first championships (baseball and ice hockey) in 1903, the Knights' athletic success has spanned every sport offered by the school. Though it no longer sponsors bowling, fencing, golf, and ice hockey, City has won titles in 20 different sports in its history.

The list below includes championships won in single-sport leagues before the school joined an athletic association in all sports in 1919, championships earned between 1919 and 1993 as members of the Maryland Scholastic Association (now Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association), and Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) district, regional, and state championships won by the Knights since joining the MPSSAA in 1993.

Badminton (17 championships)

Baseball (14)

Boys' basketball (28)

Girls' basketball (4)

Bocce (2)

Boys' bowling (7)

Boys' cross country (20)

Fencing (11)

Football (26)

Boys' golf (10)

Ice hockey (2)

Boys' lacrosse (20)

Girls' lacrosse (12)

Boys' soccer (14)

Girls' soccer (3)

Softball (2)

Swimming (35)

Boys' tennis (14)

Co-ed tennis (6)

Boys' track and field (22)

Volleyball (4)

Wrestling (15)

Boys' basketball

Basketball has been played at Baltimore City College for more than a century. One of the earliest recorded results in program history is a one-point overtime road loss to the University of Maryland Terrapins (then known as the Maryland Agricultural College Aggies) on January 25, 1913. [9] The most successful head coach in school history was George Howard "Jerry" Phipps, who led the Knights to a record of 133–27, four Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA) championships, and a streak of forty straight games without a loss spanning two seasons between 1960 and 1968. [10] In all, the school won twelve MSA A-Conference basketball championships (1922, 1923, 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969). [10]

Baltimore City College currently competes in District 9 (Baltimore City League) of the MPSSAA. [11] Since 2007, City College has earned berths in every MPSSAA state tournament and has posted seven 20+ win seasons. The Knights have won three MPSSAA state championships (2009, 2010, and 2014), one of just five schools in Maryland that have won three or more boys' basketball state titles since 2000. [12] [13] City has advanced to the MPSSAA state tournament semifinals six times (1997, 1998, 1999, 2009, 2010, and 2014), third most all-time among Baltimore City League teams. [12] [14] The Knights won the Baltimore City League Division I championship in 2014 and also appeared in the district championship game in 2011. [15]

With a record of 27–0 in 2014, City College posted the third undefeated season in school history (1966, 1967) and became the first Baltimore City League team since 2008–2009 to finish the season without a loss. [13] The Knights ended the 2014 season as the No. 18-ranked team in the country in the final USA Today Super 25 and Student Sports Fab 50 national boys' basketball polls, the team's highest national ranking since beginning the 2011–12 season as the No. 21-ranked team in the preseason USA Today national poll. [16]

Daryl Wade, who coached the Knights to the 2014 MPSSAA state championship, three additional MPSSAA state semifinal appearances, and a 30-game win streak between December 2013 and December 2014, was replaced as head coach in 2017. The current City College head coach is Omarr Smith, B.C.C. '98, a long-time Wade assistant. [17]

Football

The Baltimore City College football program began in the mid-1870s, and has won more than 20 MSA A-Conference and MPSSAA championships in its history. The Knights primarily competed against are colleges and universities throughout the 1880s and 1890s because few secondary schools existed at the time. [3] The program began competing against other high schools at the beginning of the 20th century, and has held since 1941 the record for the longest streak of games played without a loss in MSA and MPSSAA history. [18] The Knights played 54 consecutive games without a loss between 1934 and 1941. [18] Harry Lawrence, who guided the Knights to a 38-game undefeated streak between 1936 and 1940 (including 35 wins, three ties, and four MSA championships), remains City College's most successful head football coach. [19]

George Young became head football coach in 1959 and guided the Knights to six Maryland Scholastic Association A-Conference championships. Young left the program after the 1967 season to join the National Football League as an offensive line coach for the Baltimore Colts and would later become the general manager of the New York Giants. One of his star players was quarterback Kurt Schmoke, who later became States' Attorney for Baltimore City and served two terms as the Mayor of Baltimore, the first elected African-American mayor in the history of Baltimore City. [20]

George Petrides was named head football coach in 1975 and remained in the same position for 40 years. [21] Petrides, a 1967 graduate of the school, retired in 2015 with a coaching record of 257–144–1 and as the second winningest active coach in Maryland high school football. [22] During his tenure, City had a 29-game winning streak en route to two Maryland Scholastic Association A-Conference championships in 1991 and 1992. [23] Coach Petrides guided City College to appearances in the semifinals of the MPSSAA state football playoffs in 1996, 2001, and 2005. The Knights finished the 1987 and 1992 seasons ranked in the top-20 nationally in the USA Today high school football poll. [24]

City–Poly rivalry (1889–present)

The City-Poly football rivalry is the oldest American football rivalry in Maryland, and one of the oldest public school football rivalries in the United States. [25] The rivalry began in 1889, when City College met the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (Poly) at Clifton Park for a football scrimmage in which City's freshman team beat Poly. [25] [26] City remained undefeated in the series until 1908. [27] In the 1920s, the rivalry turned so fierce that riots erupted on the streets of downtown Baltimore on the day before "The Game" when opposing parades clashed resulting in the sons of both the Mayor of Baltimore and the Governor of Maryland were arrested in 1928. By the 1930s a "Peace Pact" was sworn annually and signed by student government leaders of both schools before the cameras of the press in the Mayor's Ceremonial Office in City Hall. Several student disturbances at games or on transit buses afterwards in the late-1960s and early-1970s threatened to put an end to the athletic tradition reflecting the tense tenor of the times, but goodwill eventually prevailed again by the quieter 1980s. By the 1950s, it had become a Baltimore tradition that after a morning of church services, parades and rallies, the two Catholic high school football powers of Loyola High School (Loyola Blakefield) and Calvert Hall College would play on Thanksgiving Day morning at 10 a.m., followed at 2 p.m. by City-Poly as the two public school rivals at Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street. That evening's TV news and sports casts led off with the scores and highlights of "The Game" and half-time shows and parades. Next day's The Sun and The News-Post and American had special sections and stories covering all facets of the day before.

One of the most memorable City-Poly games occurred on Thanksgiving Day 1965, at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, with some 25,000 fans in attendance. City beat Poly 52–6, and completed a 10–0 season with the team finishing the season ranked eighth in the nation by a national sports poll. [28] City's 52–6 victory over Poly in that game is the largest margin of victory in the history of the series. [29] Former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke was the quarterback and Maryland Delegate Curt Anderson was the captain. The game is no longer played on Thanksgiving or at Memorial Stadium, but is now located at the home of the Baltimore Ravens, M&T Bank Stadium, at Camden Yards in downtown Baltimore. City College won the 127th meeting in 2015 by routing Poly by a final score of 42–6, the school's fourth consecutive victory in the series. Poly now leads the series 62–59–6. [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltimore City College</span> School in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Baltimore City College, known colloquially as City,City College, and B.C.C., is a college preparatory school with a liberal arts focus and selective admissions criteria located in Baltimore, Maryland. Opened in October 1839, B.C.C. is the third-oldest active public high school in the United States. City College is a public exam school and an International Baccalaureate World School at which students in the ninth and tenth grades participate in the IB Middle Years Programme while students in the eleventh and twelfth grades participate in the IB Diploma Programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltimore Polytechnic Institute</span> School in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, colloquially referred to as BPI, Poly, and The Institute, is a U.S. public high school founded in 1883. Established as an all-male manual trade / vocational school by the Baltimore City Council and the Baltimore City Public Schools, it is now a coeducational academic institution that emphasizes sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It is located on a 53-acre (21 ha) tract of land in North Baltimore on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. BPI and the adjacent Western High School are located on the same campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loyola Blakefield</span> School in Chestnut Avenue Towson, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States

Loyola Blakefield is a private Catholic, college preparatory school run by the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus in Towson, Maryland and within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It was established in 1852 by the Jesuits as an all-boys school for students from Baltimore, Baltimore County, Harford County, Carroll County, Howard County, Anne Arundel County, and Southern Pennsylvania. It enrolls over 900 students in grades six through twelve. The school was originally called Loyola High School when it was established in 1852. The name change occurred when it added a middle school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilde Lake High School</span> Public high school in Columbia, MD, United States

Wilde Lake High School is a secondary school located in Columbia, Maryland's Village of Wilde Lake, United States, one of 13 public high schools in Howard County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Paul's School for Boys (Maryland)</span> Private, day school in Brooklandville, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States

St. Paul's School for Boys is an Episcopal, coed, private school located in Brooklandville, Maryland. It occupies a 120-acre (0.49 km2) rural campus in the Green Spring Valley Historic District, ten miles (16 km) north of the city of Baltimore in suburban Baltimore County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Severna Park High School</span> Public school in Severna Park, Maryland, United States

Severna Park High School is a public high school in the United States located in the suburban CDP of Severna Park, Maryland. It is a part of the Anne Arundel County Public Schools system. SPHS opened its doors to students in 1959 and was the seventh public high school opened in Anne Arundel County.. Its principal is Lindsay Abruzzo. A new school was built on the same grounds, and opened in January 2017. The Falcons are sports rivals with nearby Broadneck High School.

Middletown High School is a high school located in Middletown, Maryland, United States. First established in 1888, the school opened in its current building in April 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mt. Hebron High School</span> Public high school in the United States

Mt. Hebron High School is a public high school located in Ellicott City, Maryland, United States. It is part of the Howard County Public School System.

The Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (M.I.A.A.) is a boys' sports conference for private high schools generally located in the Baltimore metropolitan area but extending to various other regions, including the state's mostly rural Eastern Shore. The M.I.A.A. has 27 member schools and offers competition in 17 sports. In most sports, it offers multiple levels of competition, including Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Freshmen-Sophomore teams, and the conference is broken down by separate leagues in each. In addition, members are sorted in accordance to continual performance; categories include 'A', 'B', or 'C' Conferences. Teams of the Association (League) may move up or down according to their performance spanning over the course of a year or so to maintain the competition at appropriate levels. Such levels vary for each sport; a school with a "B-Conference" lacrosse team can have an "A-Conference" soccer team: it all depends on the athletic performance of that particular sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (Baltimore, Maryland)</span> Public, magnet school in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, is a public high school in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patterson High School (Baltimore)</span> Public, comprehensive school in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Patterson High School is a public high school located in the Hopkins-Bayview neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardinal Gibbons School (Baltimore, Maryland)</span> Private school in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

The Cardinal Gibbons School, also referred to as Cardinal Gibbons, CG, and most commonly as Gibbons, was a Roman Catholic high school and middle school for boys in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. A private institution for grades 6–12, Gibbons drew its enrollment from the neighborhoods of southwest Baltimore City and the counties surrounding the Baltimore metropolitan area, with some as far away as Harford County, Carroll County, and Frederick County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dundalk High School</span> Public secondary school in Dundalk, Maryland, United States

Dundalk High School (DHS) is a four-year public high school in the United States, located in Baltimore County, Maryland. The school opened in 1959. Starting in 2010, DHS was rebuilt and combined with Sollers Point Technical High School. The new building opened in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltimore City College football</span> Basketball team in MD, US

The Baltimore City College football team, known as the "Black Knights", or formerly "Castlemen", and "Alamedans", has represented Baltimore City College, commonly referred to as "City", Baltimore's flagship public college preparatory school, for nearly 150 years in the sport of gridiron football. Prior to 1953, the team was primarily referred to as the "Collegians", a moniker that is sometimes used today. City's football program is the oldest high school football team in Maryland and is among the oldest high school football programs in the United States. The program was among the nation's best in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's, finishing ranked in national high school football polls on multiple occassions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City-Poly football rivalry</span> American football rivalry

The City–Poly football rivalry, also referred to as the "City-Poly Game" is an American football rivalry between the Baltimore City College Black Knights (City) and the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute Engineers (Poly). This matchup is the oldest football rivalry in Maryland. The rivalry is believed to be the second-oldest high school football rivalry in the United States between public high schools, predated only by the English High School of Boston-Boston Latin School football rivalry, which started two years earlier in 1887. The rivalry began in 1889 and the teams have met 134 times in history. City College leads the series 66-62-6.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association</span>

Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA), is the association that oversees public high school sporting contests in the state of Maryland. Organized after World War II in 1946, the MPSSAA is made up of public high schools from each of Maryland's 23 counties and independent city of Baltimore City, which joined the association in 1993 when its public high schools withdrew at the orders of a new Superintendent of Public Instruction (schools) in the Baltimore City Public Schools from the earlier longtime athletic league, the Maryland Scholastic Association (M.S.A.) which was founded in 1919. The MSA had been composed of public high schools in the City of Baltimore and private / religious / independent schools on the secondary level in the City of Baltimore and its metropolitan area and the surrounding central Maryland region. It was one of the few state-level interscholastic athletic leagues in the nation composed of both public and private/religious/independent secondary schools. After the Baltimore City public high schools withdrew from the MSA, the remaining private/religious/independent schools conferred and organized two parallel regional/state-wide athletic leagues with sports competition and exercise activities with one for young men and the other for young women. These were the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association and the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland]] which endured today. All three state-wide athletic leagues, two for private/religious/independent secondary schools and one for co-ed public high schools exist today marrying on the proud traditions, memories and championships of the old Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA) - one of the oldest state athletic leagues for secondary schools in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvert Hall College High School</span> Parochial school in Towson, Maryland, United States

Calvert Hall College High School is a Catholic college preparatory high school for boys, located in Towson, Maryland, United States. The school's mission is to make its students "men of intellect, men of faith, and men of integrity." It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, the first Catholic diocese founded in the Western Hemisphere in 1789.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltimore City College boys' basketball</span> Basketball team in MD, US

The Baltimore City College boys' basketball team, known as the "Black Knights", or formerly, the "Collegians", "Castlemen", and "Alamedans", has represented Baltimore City College, commonly referred to as "City", the city of Baltimore's flagship public college preparatory school, for more than 100 years. One of the earliest results recorded in program history is a one-point overtime road loss to the University of Maryland Terrapins on January 25, 1913. City joined the Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA) in 1919, and competed in the league for 73 years until it withdrew in 1992. As members of the MSA, City College won 12 boys' basketball championships.

The Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA) was a high school sports league governing high school sports in the Baltimore metropolitan area. The MSA was established in 1919 and was initially led by Dr. Phillip H. Edwards, a former coach at and then-President of Baltimore City College. The league was established as a central coordinating entity to ensure fair competition and handle operational processes like scheduling games. The MSA was founded as two leagues of approximately six teams each "to allow the difference in strength among some of the teams." The winners from each league initially played to determine a city champion. Founding members of the MSA included Baltimore City College, Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, The Donaldson School, Dunham's School, Friends School of Baltimore, Loyola Blakefield, Mount Saint Joseph High School, Park School of Baltimore, William S. Marston School. Ultimately, MSA membership included public high schools from Baltimore City and surrounding counties, as well as Roman Catholic, other religious, and independent private schools.

References

  1. ↑ Leonhart (1939), p. 198
  2. ↑ Kings of American Football: The University of Maryland, 1890–1952, p. 28, Columbia Publishing Co., 1952.
  3. 1 2 Leonhart (1939), p. 200.
  4. ↑ "Series Records vs. All Opponents" (PDF). Johns Hopkins Baseball Record Book. pp. 29–44. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-08. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  5. ↑ "All-Time Series Records" (PDF). navysports.com. p. 31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-08. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  6. ↑ "Otto K. Schmied, 101, city school supervisor". The Baltimore Sun. November 17, 1992.
  7. ↑ Wagner, Bill (September 19, 1993). "The dissolution of the Maryland Scholastic Association". Capital Gazette. Archived from the original on March 8, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Ravens, Under Armour Unveil Baltimore City Uniform Donations". Archived from the original on April 1, 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Archival Attractions at the University of Maryland > The Lost Season: 1912–1913 Men's Basketball". University Libraries, University of Maryland. April 4, 2011. Archived from the original on December 29, 2013.
  10. 1 2 "Newsletter" (PDF). Baltimore City College Alumni Association. April–May 2008. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 23, 2015.
  11. ↑ Graham, Glenn (March 7, 2014). "Undefeated and No. 1 City boys basketball has to hit the road for region title game". The Baltimore Sun.
  12. 1 2 "2013–14 MPSSAA Winter Record Book" (PDF). Maryland Public Secondary School Athletics Association.
  13. 1 2 Baltimore Sun (March 15, 2014). "City boys dominate fourth quarter, complete undefeated season with Class 3A state championship – Baltimore Sun". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  14. ↑ Baltimore Sun Media Group (March 8, 2014). "City College defeats Reservoir in 3A East boys basketball final – Baltimore Sun". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  15. ↑ PressBox Baltimore. "City's Win Against Lake Clifton Features Connection Betwe – PressBox Baltimore". PressBox Baltimore. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  16. ↑ Derek Toney. "Knighted" . Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  17. ↑ Baltimore Sun (March 28, 2014). "All-Metro boys basketball coach of the year is Daryl Wade of City – Baltimore Sun". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  18. 1 2 "MPSSAA 2014 Fall Record Book" (PDF).
  19. ↑ Harris, Murray, ed. (1940). The 1940 Green Bag. Baltimore: The 1940 Senior Class.
  20. ↑ Marudas, Kyriakos (1988). The City-Poly Game. Baltimore: Gateway Press. p. 66.
  21. ↑ "George Petrides of Baltimore City College Honored as Ravens HS Coach of the Week – September 11, 2006". National Football League . Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 19, 2006.
  22. ↑ Baltimore Sun (August 5, 2015). "Longtime City football coach George Petrides retires". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  23. ↑ Kane, Gregory (February 10, 2001). "Speaking of streaks, this one's even longer". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on September 8, 2004. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  24. ↑ "USA TODAY". USA TODAY. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  25. 1 2 Patterson, Ted (2000). Football in Baltimore: History and Memorabilia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 7. ISBN   0-8018-6424-0.
  26. ↑ Leonhart (1939), p. 219.
  27. ↑ Leonhart (1939), p. 221.
  28. ↑ Strasburger, Victor, ed. (1967). The 1967 Green Bag. p. 19.
  29. ↑ DiBlasi, Joe (November 9, 2006). "City-Poly". Word Smith Media Ventures. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 26, 2007.
  30. ↑ Baltimore Sun (November 7, 2015). "City routs rival Poly in football, 42–6, in 127th meeting". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.