Mid-Suburban League


The Mid-Suburban League is an Illinois [High School Association] recognized high school extra-curricular league which includes 12 schools located in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. The conference is split up into two divisions for all interscholastic activities. The primary criteria for the separate divisions is geography, with the schools in the West Division being located west of IL Route 53 and the schools of the East Division being east of it. However, the schools of the western division are also larger than the schools of the eastern division.

History

The Mid-Suburban League came into existence for the 1963–64 school year. The MSL and Des Plaines Valley League both broke off from an interim suburban league that dated back several decades. The original members of the MSL were Deerfield High School, Forest View High School, Glenbrook North High School, Glenbrook South High School, Maine West High School, and Prospect High School. Not even a year old, the conference announced expansion for the 1965–66 season with, Palatine High School, Wheeling High School, Niles North High School, and New Trier West High School joining as the schools opened. The MSL then announced a realignment for the 1965–66 season when Niles West High School and James B. Conant High School were added, with Deerfield, Glenbrook North, Glenbrook South, Niles West, Niles North, and New Trier West comprising one division, and Forest View, Prospect, Wheeling, Maine West, and James Conant comprising the other.
Just prior to the start of the 1964–65 season, it was announced that Arlington High School would join the league for the 1966–67 season, leaving the West Suburban Conference, and joining the division which included Forest View High School and soon to open school Elk Grove High School and 5 year old high school Fremd. Maine West left the league in 1967 and moved to the Central Suburban. Glenbard North joined the league in 1968, and Hersey in 1969, closing out the final changes in the conference of the 1960's.
The conference would change again in the early 1970's as Schaumburg was added in 1970, Rolling Meadows in 1971, Buffalo Grove in 1974 and Hoffman Estates in 1975. At the conclusion of the 1973 school year, Glenbard North would leave for the DuPage Valley Conference, however, in 1977, Barrington would come over from the North Suburban Conference. Unfortunately, in 1984, based on declining enrollment and high maintenance costs, Arlington High School would close with Forest View seeing the same fate 2 years later.

Membership timeline


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:1150 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1963 till:2023
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#
Colors = id:barcolor
id:line value:green
id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
id:FullxF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
id:AssocF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a full member in a football coop
id:AssocOS value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the Northwest 8 Conference
id:OtherC1 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the NWIC
id:OtherC2 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the Mid Northern Conference
id:OtherC3 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the SHARK Conference
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Full from:1963 till:1965 text:Deerfield
bar:1 color:white from:1972 till:end text:Left the conference for the Central Suburban League
bar:2 color:Full from:1963 till:1986 text:Forest View
bar:2 color:white from:1986 till:end text:School Closed
bar:3 color:Full from:1963 till:1965 text:Glenbrook North
bar:3 color:white from:1972 till:end text:Left the conference for the Central Suburban League
bar:4 color:Full from:1963 till:1965 text:Glenbrook South
bar:4 color:white from:1972 till:end text:Left the conference for the Central Suburban League
bar:5 color:Full from:1963 till:1967 text:Maine West
bar:5 color:white from:1972 till:end text:Left the conference for the Central Suburban League
bar:6 color:Full from:1963 till:end text:Prospect
bar:7 color:Full from:1964 till:1965 text:New Trier West
bar:7 color:white from:1972 till:end text:Left the conference for the Central Suburban League
bar:8 color:Full from:1964 till:1965 text:Niles North
bar:8 color:white from:1972 till:end text:Left the conference for the Central Suburban League
bar:9 color:Full from:1964 till:end text:Wheeling
bar:10 color:Full from:1965 till:end text:Conant
bar:11 color:Full from:1965 till:end text:Palatine
bar:12 color:Full from:1966 till:1984 text:Arlington
bar:13 color:Full from:1967 till:end text:Elk Grove
bar:14 color:Full from:1967 till:end text:Fremd
bar:15 color:Full from:1968 till:1973 text:Glenbard North
bar:15 color:white from:1977 till:end text:Left the conference for the DuPage Valley Conference
bar:16 color:Full from:1969 till:end text:Hersey
bar:17 color:Full from:1970 till:end text:Schaumburg
bar:18 color:Full from:1971 till:end text:Rolling Meadows
bar:19 color:Full from:1974 till:end text:Buffalo Grove
bar:20 color:Full from:1975 till:end text:Hoffman Estates
bar:21 color:Full from:1977 till:end text:Barrington
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1963
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos: tabs:
text:^"Mid-Suburban Membership History"
  1. > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#