Brother Rice Catholic High School: A Bevy of Manly Swimmers

"Brother Rice High School: Act Manfully in Christ Jesus."

I'm all for acting manfully, especially if these are the guys who are doing the acting. 

Brother Rice is "Chicagoland's Premiere Catholic All-Male College Preparatory School."

I'm all for that "all-male" part,too.

In case you were wondering, Brother Rice was an Irish businessman who became a monk after his wife died, and devoted himself to the education of poor youth. He was beatified in 1996.  The order he founded, the Christian Brothers, runs schools all over the world.  Two are named after Brother Rice himself, in Chicago and a suburb of Detroit, Michigan.

There are also Edmund Rice camps for at-risk, homeless, and refugee children, in Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, the United States, India, and throughout Africa. .

This one is in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

But back to Brother Rice High School: It's on the southwest side, on Pulaski Road and 99th, 18 miles from the Loop, a high-poverty, high-crime neighborhood.  In the same block as a girls' high school and Saint Xavier University.

It seems rather gay-friendly, for a Catholic high school.  No slurs based on "race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, or religion" are tolerated.

There's a Diversity Club where students "develop skills in dealing with issues of race, discrimination, sexuality, and prejudice."

It's the alma mater of Brian McNaught, author of On Being Gay (1986), one of the first gay books I ever read, and out actor Denis O'Hare (American Horror Story).

So, are there any guys acting manfully around?










A lot of swimmers.  Brother Rice prides itself on the excellence of the swim team.











So many swimmers, you'd have to work three 8-hour days to interview them all.  I count 22 here, but some are hidden.








Not so many wrestlers, but you don't need many, as long as they're posed appropriately to show off their biceps and bulges. 

















These cross-country runners may be acting manfully, but they're not showing off their physiques.  They may be from the wrong Brother Rice anyway -- the one in Chicago has Crusaders, not Warriors.

And so many swimmers....