One of the interesting questions in the history of Minnesota high school basketball–at least, it’s interesting to me, because I played at a private school myself–is whether the private schools were as good, better or worse than the public schools in the years before the private schools joined the MSHSL in 1975. The answer is that, unquestionably, the private schools were competitive with the public schools. Here is some of what my research turned up.
1922 Duluth Cathedral won 2 games at the “open” national tournament in Chicago, the same tournament that the public schools played in. There was no national Catholic tournament yet. More to the point, Cathedral won the Lake Superior Conference title, and beat Duluth Central 30-18 and 30-15 in doing so. The MSHSL champion, Red Wing, finished 22-0 and beat Duluth Central 30-25 in a semi-final. I have Duluth Cathedral #1, Red Wing #2 and Duluth Central #4 in my final rankings for that year.
1924 Duluth Cathedral won the Catholic title, and defeated the MSHSL champion Two Harbors in their conference,. I have Cathedral #1 and Two Harbors #2 that year.
1925 St. Paul Mechanic Arts and St. Thomas tied 21-21, then both went on to win their respective state titles. Mechanic Arts was unbeaten until losing in the 3rd round of the national tournament 29-28 in OT to Kansas City Westport. It was their only loss. I have Mechanic Arts #1 and St. Thomas #2.
1930 Mechanic Arts won its 2nd MSHSL title but lost to Cretin and DeLaSalle in the regular season. St. John’s then beat Cretin 23-18 to win the state Catholic title. I have St. John’s #1, Cretin #3, Mechanic Arts #4 and DeLaSalle #10.
1931 DeLaSalle won the national Catholic tournament in Chicago, finishing 24-3. They beat St. Paul champion Central 21-6. I have them #1 for the year.
Private schools were strongly impacted by the economic hardships of the Great Depression, or at least during the 1930s their success was not so extravagant as before, and yet I have Cretin (1933, 1934), Duluth Cathedral (1935), DeLaSalle (1937), St. Thomas (1938), Duluth Cathedral (1941) and Cretin (1942) rated in the top 5 of those years.
1941 Duluth Cathedral beat Cretin 26-21 in the 1st championship game of the new Catholic tournament. Buhl won the MSHSL title, and one of its 3 losses was to Cretin. I have Cathedral #5 and Cretin #7. I do have Buhl #1.
1943 Then in 1943, St. Paul Washington won the MSHSL state title after going 8-1 in the City. Cretin went 7-0 against City Conference opponents with a 3-point larger average margin of victory. I have Cretin #1 and Washington #2.
1945 DeLaSalle won the Catholic title in 1944, then in 1945 they gave the defending state MSHSL champion Mpls. Henry their only loss in a prelim game at Williams Arena. Henry bounced back to repeat as MSHSL champion while De lost to Cretin in the region, and Cretin lost to Mankato Loyola at state. I have Henry #1, Loyola #3 and DeLaSalle #9.
1949 St. Thomas won Minnesota’s 1st 3-peat in 1949-1950-1951. In 1949 St. Thomas beat St. Paul Humboldt 57-48. The Tommies won the Catholic title and Humboldt won the MSHSL title. I have St. Thomas #1 and Humboldt #2. I have the Tommies at #4 in 1950 but at #1 again in 1951.
1951 I have St. Thomas #1 at 29-0.
1952 Minnehaha had the best team of its 1950-1953 4-peat. They were 22-1, and #5 according to my rankings.
1954-1957 DeLaSalle won 4 straight Catholic titles. I have them #2-#1-#1 and #2 for those years. I made a separate post about this team. For the record, Minnehaha’s best player played college ball at St. Olaf. DeLaSalle had 2 players who started at Minnesota and Notre Dame.
1965 Austin Pacelli finished 22-1 and beat Cotter 86-56 in the Catholic final. I have them #1 in the state ahead of Minnetonka’s MSHSL champions.
1966, 1967 and 1968 Rochester Lourdes won the Catholic title each year, unbeaten, but never played a meaningful game against a public school. I have Lourdes #5, #2 and #6 for those 3 years.
1966, 1968, 1969 and 1970 Shattuck dominated the old non-Catholic private school tournament, winning 4 of 5 from 1966 to 1970. I have them rated #9, #9, #3 and #5 for those seasons.
In nutshell, the success enjoyed by private schools in the 21st century is not a fluke. The best private schools were highly competitive right from the early 1920s through 1970.