The "Fighting Crusaders" were one of many Catholic high schools that originally competed in the now defunct T.C.I.L. (Texas Christian Interscholastic League). The league began in 1935 under the direction of Albert Mitchell (then principal of Central Catholic, San Antonio). Strake Jesuit's last year of competition in the T.C.I.L. concluded when the league came to a close in the 1999–2000 athletic season with the baseball team capturing the final T.C.I.L. State Championship in any sport. After T.C.I.L. merged with TAPPS, both Strake Jesuit and Dallas Jesuit were not permitted to join as TAPPS believed those two schools were too powerful. From the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2003, the Crusaders competed as an independent in all sports.