Something that came up a week ago is the topic of Blue Bloods– specifically a response to one of NYCfbtea regarding a claim that a PSAL ‘AAA’ team could beat an NYCHSFL ‘Blue Blood.’ When pressed on what team, the responses I got were not blue blood teams in the Catholic league. So I do wonder what that person meant.

I did something like this last season, where I listed all the championships and championship appearances of each program. I will do something similar here, but with the goal of identifying the Blue Bloods of the Catholic league.

I think that the main issue is everyone has different definitions of what a blue bloodis . It could be a historically relevant program regardless of hardware and regardless of division, or a founding member of the league, or just the current programs in the ‘AAA’ division. I will attempt to define it for the NYCHSFL, and identify who qualifies in the league.

Historically relevant programs regardless of hardware and regardless of division:

• St. Anthony’s
• Chaminade
• Xavier
• Holy Cross
• Archbishop Stepinac
• Iona Prep
• Fordham Prep
• St Francis Prep
• Xaverian
• Holy Trinity
• St. John the Baptist
• Cardinal Hayes
• Cardinal Spellman
• Nazareth High School
• Kellenberg
• Mount St. Michael

This list feels a little too long to be a blue blood list. All of these teams have historical accomplishments and relevancy across divisions, with some of them having significant hardware, but not all of them.

Founding members of the NYCHSFL:

• Chaminade
• St. Francis Prep
• Mount St. Michael
• Cardinal Hayes
• St. John’s Prep
• Iona Prep
• Archbishop Stepinac
• All Hallows High School

Two of these schools either are no longer operating, or no longer have a football team, but at least we have narrowed it down, even though they’re missing some pretty significant programs. But f we are going about the age of programs, why not add Fordham Prep and Xavier? Both schools have been playing football since the 1880s, predating the NYCHSFL by nearly 70 years. But I am not sure either program is what anyone has in mind when they think “Blue Blood.”

The Current ‘AAA’:

• Iona Prep
• St. Anthony’s
• Monsignor Farrell
• Chaminade
• Archbishop Stepinac
• Cardinal Hayes

Now we are getting somewhere, though I am not sure all these teams should be considered ‘blue bloods’ of the NYCHSFL. Both Cardinal Hayes and Archbishop Stepinac are relative newcomers to the ‘AAA’ and although they are both founding members. I just don’t feel comfortable including them on this list considering the amount of time they spent in the ‘AA’ and ‘A’.

The definition that Google spits back at me is below.

I think this narrows it down quite a bit, but I would add on for the NYCHSFL:

• Sustained success on the ‘AAA’ level
• An abundance of hardware at the ‘AAA’ level

Pete’s list of NYCHSFL Blue Bloods:

• St. Anthony’s
  • 16 ‘AAA’ Championships (1972, 1974, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2022)
  • 12 more championship game appearances (1978, 1979, 1983, 1989, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2008, 2013, 2017, 2024)
• St. Francis Prep
  • 14 ‘AAA’ Championships (1955, 1957, 1959, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990)
  • 2 ‘AA-1’ Titles (1998, 2005)
    • 1 more championship game appearance (2000)
  • 1 ‘AA-2’ championship game appearance (2011)
• Chaminade
  • 12 ‘AAA’ Championships (1956, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1977, 1978, 1987, 1998, 2012)
  • 3 ‘AA-1’ Championships (2014, 2019, 2021)
    • 4 more championship game appearances (1990, 1994, 2002, 2013)
• Monsignor Farrell
  • 5 ‘AAA’ Championships (1979, 1986, 1991, 1999, 2000)
    • 8 more championship game appearances (1982, 1984, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2021, 2025)
• Mount St. Michael
  • 4 ‘AAA’ Championships (1969, 1992, 1996, 1997)
    • 3 more championship game appearances (1986, 2006, 2007)
  • 1 ‘AA-1’ Championship (2009)
    • 1 more championship game appearance (2013)
  • 1 ‘AA-2’ Championship (2023)
    • 1 more championship game appearance (2022)
• Iona Prep
  • 6 ‘AAA’ Championships (1954, 1967, 2008, 2021, 2024, 2025)
    • 5 championship game appearances (2005, 2010, 2014, 2022, 2023)
  • 3 ‘AA-1’ Championships (1993, 2000, 2016)
    • 1 championship game appearance (1990)

I think the only two on this list that are arguable are Iona Prep and Mount St. Michael. Mount St. Michael is in the ‘AA-2’ division now, and has not been in the ‘AAA’ for quite some time, but as late as 2007, the Mountaineers were competing for ‘AAA’ titles. Iona Prep, a founding member, with two championships in the early years, but not much else in the way of hardware until the 2000s, is the only other debatable one. Ask me this questions 5 years ago, I likely have Iona Prep off this list, but I think they qualify now.

When I was having this discussion, a few folks reached out to me to ask about programs that dominated the ‘AA’ and ‘A’ levels of football, and I think that while that is interesting, I am not sure that works for this argument. Programs like Xavier — 5 ‘AA’ titles, or Kellenberg — 7 ‘AA’ titles, or Cardinal Spellman — 4 ‘A’ titles, are strong in their division, but I have a hard time grouping them with the above list of programs.

Some notable programs have been left off, ones that are strong now, and were traditionally strong in the past.

• Cardinal Hayes has been a premier program the last 10 or so years, winning three ‘AAA’ title games. They are a founding member. I just feel they don’t have the history to be put among this group.
• Archbishop Stepinac is in a similar boat, but their years in the ‘AA’ prevent me from putting them in the above group.
• Holy Cross High School used to be a premier football program, sending many players to the NFL, and competing at the highest level of the NYCHSFL. They also play the traditional Battle of the Boulevard against St. Francis Prep. They just don’t have the hardware at the top division.
• Holy Trinity is in a similar boat, but again, the lack of hardware holds them back.
• St. John the Baptist actually has five ‘AAA’ titles in seven appearances from 1970-1987, but this was early on, and they have not been back to the top division since.

What do you think? Anyone I left off? Feel free to educate me on the history of the different programs in the league.