Throughout the years Bishop Sheil continued to use sports as the main weapon to fight delinquency among youth. At the same time, he brought them closer to Christ. He devised a plan to use sports to bring young people closer to Saint Andrew. Key to this plan was the construction of the gymnasium on the Northeast corner of Paulina and Addison. It was indisputably the largest and finest grammar school gym in our city. But why would a school gymnasium need to be so big and have such a large capacity? With the bleachers that were used at the time, the seating capacity of the new gym was 3000 people. The elaborate size made it the perfect longtime home for the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) and Golden Gloves boxing tournaments.
Golden Glove Tournaments
His first experiments with the CYO began through offering a youth boxing league. At the time, next to gangsters like Al Capone, boxers were the most idolized figures in Chicago. The league quickly took off and annual CYO boxing tournaments couldn’t even be contained at Saint Andrew. The CYO boxing tournaments grew to more than 15,000 spectators filling the seats at Chicago Stadium.
But Sheil offered more than sports through the CYO. He stressed Christian morality, civic mindedness and “clean living,” Soon after founding the CYO, Sheil added basketball leagues for both boys and girls. A man ahead of his time, Sheil mandated that the CYO accept children of all races.
By 1935, dioceses around the country picked up the CYO model and many still offer it today.
The Archdiocese of Chicago didn’t fund CYO. Sheil relied on donations from civic and business leaders to support the league.
While smaller units of the Catholic Youth Organization remain to this day, the National CYO was restructured in 1982 and combined with other Catholic youth serving movements. Together they are now called the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry which holds a National Conference of 23,000 youth once every two years. In November of 2019, Saint Andrew Parish is excited to have 4 youth join this conference.
