The Milwaukee City Conference (also known as "City Conference") is a high school athletic conference in Wisconsin. All full-time member institutions are located in the city of Milwaukee and are members of the Milwaukee Public Schools system.
The Milwaukee City Conference was founded in 1893,[1] when Milwaukee opened a second public high school (South Division[2]) and regular athletic competition was established between East Division and South Division High Schools. The conference added a third member in 1894 when West Division High School opened[3][4] and expanded to five in 1906 when Boys Technical and Trade High School[5] (now Bradley Tech) and North Division High School opened. By 1920, the conference had added three more schools in Washington (1911),[6]Bay View (1914)[7] and Lincoln (1920).[8] During this time period, the City Conference established themselves as a dominant force in track and field, taking the team title in twenty-five WIAA competitions between 1895 and 1929.[9]
The City Conference added a ninth member in 1929, when the village of North Milwaukee was annexed into the City of Milwaukee.[10][11] The village had its own high school prior to annexation, and after North Milwaukee High School was absorbed into MPS it became Custer High School in order to avoid confusion with North Division.[12] Three new high schools were built in consecutive years in the 1930s as Works Progress Administration projects: Juneau (1932),[13]Pulaski (1933)[14][15] and Rufus King (1934).[16][17] All became members of the City Conference after opening. Membership remained stable at twelve schools until the 1960s. John Marshall High School was opened as a combination junior/senior high school on the city's north side in 1961,[18] and two high schools were added in 1966 as a direct result of annexation:[19][20]James Madison High School[21] in the former town of Granville and Alexander Hamilton High School[22] in the former town of Greenfield. Granville already had its own high school at this time, and when their district lost territory due to annexation, it became Brown Deer High School.[23]
In 1979, Lincoln High School closed[24] and Harold S. Vincent High School[25][26] opened on the city's far northwest side as a replacement. In the years prior, realignment of the high school athletic conferences in southeastern Wisconsin was discussed extensively, driven mostly by the WIAA's desire to get the high schools in Racine and Kenosha into a larger conference after they were forced out of the Big Eight Conference in 1970.[27][28] The five-member South Shore Conference was created as a result,[29] and competition lasted for ten years before its dissolution.[30] Two members of the South Shore (Kenosha Tremper and Racine Park) joined the City Conference, and four of the City Conference's smaller members joined the Suburban Conference (Juneau, Riverside, Rufus King and West Division).[31] Due to the expansion of the conference's geographic footprint, the conference was briefly known as the Milwaukee Area Conference.[32] The newly renamed conference made a slight adjustment in 1983 when Kenosha Bradford joined from the Braveland Conference to replace Racine Park after their exit to the Suburban Conference.[33] The high schools in Kenosha left the MAC in 1985, taking four schools on the south side of Milwaukee with them (Bay View, Hamilton, Pulaski and South Division) and rejoining with the Racine high schools to form the Big Nine Conference.[34] During that same year, the four high schools who left for the Suburban Conference rejoined after it was realigned out of existence,[35] and the MAC changed its name back to the Milwaukee City Conference. The four south side Milwaukee high schools in the Big Nine did not want this realignment and threatened to sue[36] the WIAA to rejoin the City Conference.[37][38] Bay View, Hamilton, Pulaski and South Division all rejoined the City Conference in 1993.[39]
Several co-op teams exist in the conference. These co-op teams usually include a full-time member and an affiliate member. The "host" school is listed in bold.
Bay View & Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning (football, boys' & girls' tennis)
Pulaski & Milwaukee High School of the Arts (football, girls' volleyball, baseball, boys' tennis, girls' soccer)
Marshall & School Of Languages (football)
Ronald W. Reagan & Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning (girls' basketball)
Madison, Marshall, & School Of Languages (boys' tennis)
South Division & Bradley Tech (boys' tennis)
Pulaski, Milwaukee High School of the Arts, and Ronald W. Reagan (girls' and boys' swimming)
Recently[when?] the WIAA decided to restrict travel outside Wisconsin and its border states. The decision was made as a response to the practice of City Conference boys' basketball teams, which often traveled long distances to find competition. Athletic directors from City schools argued against the decision, saying the travel was paid for by the host school or event organizer.[41]
The situation has caused some supporters to call for the City Conference to follow the lead of leagues in other major cities, such as Chicago and Philadelphia, to hold its own tournaments separate from the WIAA.[citation needed]
^"Pulaski High Young But Aggressive". Children in Urban America Project, Marquette University (original source Milwaukee Sentinel). 2024. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
^Trower, Ralph; Dunn, Pat (11 January 1970). "Amid 60s Changes Sports Stand Tall". Racine Journal Times Sunday Bulletin. p. 50. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
^Langenkamp, Don (17 January 1975). "No Checkmate on Realignment". Green Bay Press-Gazette. p. 15. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
