The School's team is the Holy Cross Knights and the school's athletic archrival is the St. Francis Preparatory School Terriers. Since they are both located on Francis Lewis Boulevard approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) apart, when they play each other the game is called the Battle of the Boulevard.
The concept of the first all-boys Catholic high school in Queens was conceived on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in the early 1940s out of a friendship between Msgr. Edmund Reilly, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church (Flatlands) and Rev. Frederick Schulte, CSC. The Brothers of Holy Cross were invited to staff the Boys' Department of St. Thomas Aquinas in 1944 and St. Francis of Assisi in 1947. Within two months after coming to St. Thomas Aquinas, the Brothers were invited to establish a high school in the Bayside West section of Queens.
In September 1955, ten years after the initial plans were drawn, Holy Cross High School officially opened in the still incomplete building. The support of interested parents and friends contributed greatly to the success of the school. With the first graduating class of 460 in June 1959, the school was well on its way to becoming the fine institution it is today.
One of Holy Cross' first storied athletic teams was their inaugural 1955 football team created by Coaches Gerry Begley and Bill Stetter. Coach Begley was a standout high school QB and was the back-up QB for the 1947 Notre Dame Heisman Award-winning QB John Lujack. While at Notre Dame, Begley played under legendary Coach Frank Leahy in the late 1940s winning 3 National Championships. This 1955 HC football team was only the beginning of a football program that would quickly reach nationally recognized prominence and produce many highly touted college recruits. Coach Begley was succeeded by Coach Guido Maiola and then the highly respected and successful football Coach Robert Griffin who would guide HC to their 1963 (1st school championship) and 1965 New York City championships before becoming the head coach for Idaho State, the University of Rhode Island, and QBs Coach/Offensive Coordinator of the College of the Holy Cross.
Holy Cross began as a comprehensive high school offering college preparatory courses in addition to conducting programs in industrial arts and general studies. It is now entirely college prep, with about 98% of its graduates continuing their higher education in schools throughout the country. It was during the McGovern tenure (75-81) that the governance structure of the school was changed from a completely religious (CSC) board of trustees to a two-pronged board structure consisting of an ownership (Congregation of Holy Cross) board working in collaboration with a lay board of Directors (Executive Committee) appointed by the ownership group. This structure was deemed nationally as an important innovation and has since been replicated by numerous religious congregations which run schools. For many years McGovern promoted this structure annually at the convention of the National Catholic Educational Association where he also served in later years as National Public Policy Research Associate.
Holy Cross has always been a college preparatory school. When the school was first opened, they had an industrial arts program which included a print shop which printed, among other things, the school newspaper "The Lance". This program was discontinued during the principalship of Brother Aubert Harrigan, C.S.C. in favor of expanding the mission and purpose of the school as a more "college prep" environment. A New York State Education Department official remarked to John McGovern, during his principalship (1975–1981), that the industrial arts program at Holy Cross "in the early days" distinguished the school in a national profile of Catholic secondary schools in the United States. It was during the McGovern tenure that the school reached its highest enrollment (1400+).
Besides athletics, Holy Cross offers many intellectual pursuits such as, but not limited to: Campus Ministry, Student Government, and the National Honor Society (NHS). The Holy Cross Brothers still staff the school in various capacities; however as a result of governance changes instituted during the McGovern tenure in collaboration with provincial leadership, the school is operating under a "sponsorship" model with the Brothers of Holy Cross constituting the ownership board and a local Board of Directors constituting the management board. The religious philosophy is based on the mission of The Brothers of Holy Cross which were founded in Le Mans, France in 1835.
Mike Riordan, former basketball player for the New York Knicks and Baltimore/Capitol/Washington Bullets of the NBA; 1970 NBA Championship (NY Knicks); 1972–73 NBA All Defensive 2nd Team (Class of 1964)
