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. They were admitted into the University Interscholastic League (U.I.L.), the public school athletic league, partly due to the efforts of Joe Nixon, a member of the Texas House of Representatives. Texas Senate Bill 1943 opened the UIL to Strake and Dallas Jesuit, which established rules to put those two schools on equal footing with public schools. After its admission into the U.I.L., Strake Jesuit began competing in its listed district of 19-5A in the fall of 2003. The Crusaders have won several district and regional championships along with a state championship, state runners-up, and state semi-finalists within the past eight years in the U.I.L. The "Fighting Crusaders" athletic department provides 14 different programs which include: baseball, basketball, cross-country, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, water polo, and wrestling. The Houston Press ranked the U.I.L. realignment as the "Best Way to Break In to the Big Time" in 2003. Rivalry Despite moving to the U.I.L., Strake Jesuit had a storied rivalry with Saint Thomas High School (STH). Since its beginning in 1964, Strake Jesuit had a record of 24–29–1 against STH. However, as of 2020, both schools have announced the end of the annual competition and Strake Jesuit will now compete with Dallas Jesuit instead. This decision however was disliked by students and alumni from both schools. Notable alumni Gerald Hills (1973) – politician and educator; former chair of the Michigan Republican Party Jim Murphy (1976) – Member of Texas House of Representatives Rod Graves (1977) – former General Manager of the Arizona Cardinals Fred Viancos (1980) – former professional tennis player and chief operating officer of United States Professional Tennis Association Eric Mullins (1980) – Co-CEO of Lime Rock Resources and former NFL player Chris Darkins (1980) – former NFL running back Garth Jax (1982) – former NFL linebacker Bill Nguyen (1991) - Technology entrepreneur, founder of Onebox.com, SEVEN Networks, La La Media Inc., and Color