St. Ignatius College Preparatory, colloquially referred to by Bay Area locals as SI, is a private, Catholic preparatory school in the Jesuit tradition, serving the San Francisco Bay Area since 1855. Located in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, in the Sunset District of San Francisco, St. Ignatius is one of the oldest secondary schools in the U.S. state of California.
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History
St. Ignatius was founded as a one-room schoolhouse on Market Street by Anthony Maraschi, a Jesuit priest, just after the California Gold Rush in 1855. Maraschi paid $11,000 for the property which was to become the original church and schoolhouse. The church opened on July 15, 1855, and three months later, on October 15, the school opened its doors to its first students.
SI was the high school division of what later became the University of San Francisco, but it has since split from the university and changed locations five times due to the growth of the student body and natural disaster. In the 1860s, the school built a new site, adjacent to the first, on Market Street in downtown San Francisco. In 1880, SI moved its campus to a location on Van Ness Avenue in the heart of San Francisco, and by 1883, SI had become the largest Jesuit school in the nation.
Within 26 years of the relocation, however, St. Ignatius would be completely destroyed. Though the school would survive the tremors of the 1906 earthquake with only moderate damage, the subsequent fires destroyed the school and church, forcing SI to find a new location near Golden Gate Park, a hastily constructed "temporary" wooden building, affectionately known as the "Shirt Factory", which housed the school from 1906 to 1929.
In 1927, the high school was separated from the university, becoming St. Ignatius High School. Two years later, SI relocated its campus once more, this time to Stanyan Street, where it remained for 40 years. In the fall of 1969, Father Harry Carlin moved SI to its current Sunset District campus, whereupon the current name, St. Ignatius College Preparatory, was adopted.
Though founded as an all-boys school, SI became coeducational in 1989 and is now home to over 1,500 male and female students. The school celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2005.
Academics and student body
St. Ignatius offers 4 accelerated, 27 honors, and 14 Advanced Placement classes.
1,505 high school and 75 middle school students were enrolled in 2022–2023, with the student to teacher ratio being 16 to 1.
The current diversity in 2022-2023 is:
45% White
5% Latino
17% Asian
3% Black
23% Multiracial
1% Pacific Islander
1% Native American/Alaskan
5% Did Not Report
Athletics
The school has 66 athletic teams with over 70% of students participating. The Wildcats generally participate in the Western Catholic Athletic League (WCAL) in the Central Coast Section (CCS) of California, though for some sports, the teams belong to other leagues.
The men's rowing team of St. Ignatius has seen the most national success out of any athletic program at the school, as it has won a total of three US Rowing Youth National Championships in 1997, 2005, and 2006. In addition, the crew competed in the Henley Royal Regatta in England, where it won the prestigious Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup in 2006. More recently, the varsity men's team placed 4th in the SRAA National Championship under the Boys Junior 8+ category in 2022, and won the event in 2024. The team has also recently returned to Youth Nationals in 2023 and 2024, competing in the Men's U16 8+ in the former, and the Men's U17 8+ and Women's U17 8+ in the latter.
The SI men's lacrosse team won the state championship and was ranked nationally in 2008, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2022. The Cats have won the WCAL Championship 14 years in a row. In 2017 the Wildcats finished ranked number 5 nationally with a 19–2 record, beating number 6 ranked Chaminade, NY and number 14 ranked Gonzaga, D.C. St. Ignatius has a powerhouse lacrosse program, known nationwide for sending student-athletes to Ivy League and ACC schools.
The SI women's lacrosse team has historically seen success as well, winning the WCAL title for five years straight from 1997 to 2001. The team also won CCS in 2022 and ended the season as the 12th best in the country.
The SI men's soccer team has been nationally ranked by ESPN. The boys won the WCAL championship in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017, 2018, and 2019, and the CCS championship in 2009, 2017, and 2018. They won the inaugural Northern California championship in 2018 and were ranked number 2 nationally to end the season.
The SI football team were WCAL champions in 1967, 2006, and 2019, as well as CCS Division III champions in 2006 and 2011. In 2012 SI placed first in the WCAL and competed in the CCS Division I playoffs. In 2024 SI were co-WCAL champions and CCS Open division champions.
Rivalry with Sacred Heart Cathedral
St. Ignatius' traditional rival is Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, also located in San Francisco. The SI–SHC rivalry began with a rugby game on St. Patrick's Day in 1893. SI and SHC compete against each other in football, basketball, baseball, and volleyball for the Bruce-Mahoney Trophy, which is named after naval airman, Bill Bruce '35 of St. Ignatius, and Jerry Mahoney of Sacred Heart Cathedral, both alumni who died in World War II. All-time, SI has dominated over SHC, with a winning record of 55-20-3 for the trophy.
Notable alumni
Jeremiah F. Sullivan – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California
Stephen M. White – United States Senator from California from 1893 to 1899 (attended, did not graduate)
Edward John O'Dea – Bishop of Seattle (attended, did not graduate)
John Joseph Montgomery, 1873 – aviation pioneer
Joseph Richard Slevin – second curator of herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences
Charles H. Strub, 1902 – dentist and sports entrepreneur
Francis Joseph McCarty – experimenter
Daniel J. Callaghan, 1907 – United States Navy admiral, Medal of Honor recipient
Dutch Ruether – MLB player, pitcher in three World Series
Frederic B. Butler, 1913 – United States Army general
William Callaghan, 1914 – United States Navy admiral, first commanding officer of USS Missouri (BB-63)
Joseph Kurihara – Japanese American internee who renounced his American citizenship (attended, did not graduate)
Raymond L. Sullivan, 1924 – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California
Joseph E. Tinney, 1927 – attorney and politician
André Laguerre – managing editor of Sports Illustrated from 1960 to 1974