The BCL was founded in 1972, after the Baltimore high school basketball season culminated in the MSA Championship game,
Mt. St. Joseph High School defeated Dunbar High School. This game went on to be known as one of the most remarkable and controversial games in Baltimore high school basketball history. The impetus for the creation of the BCL arrived in the off-season. The goal was to make a separate division from the Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA), which served as the league for all high school athletics in the Baltimore area, public or private. The BCL created a division that was strictly for Baltimore area Catholic High Schools. It is alleged that the
Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) was the model for the BCL. The BCL was originally composed of most of the schools in the list below, with the most recent additions being
The John Carroll School in the 2010–11 season, and
Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the 2011–12 season.
Archbishop Curley High School, a founding member of the league, left the BCL in 1997. The
Cardinal Gibbons School (which closed in 2010) has the most BCL championships to date. The late O. Ray Mullis, former head coach at Cardinal Gibbons, has the most all-time wins of any coach in Baltimore City history (621 wins), while simultaneously claiming the most BCL championships (6). Other notable coaches in the league included Mark Amatucci, formerly of
Calvert Hall College, who won a national championship in the early 80s, Cokey Robertson, formerly of
St. Maria Goretti High School, Pat Clatchey of
Mount Saint Joseph, William Wells formerly of
St. Frances Academy, Jerry Savage formerly of
Loyola Blakefield, and Dan Popera formerly of
Archbishop Curley High School. == Scheduling ==