Milwaukee City Conference
The Milwaukee 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.
History
1893-1930
The Milwaukee City Conference was founded in 1893, when Milwaukee opened a second public high school and regular athletic competition was established between East Division and South Division High Schools. The first event between these two schools was a track meet in spring of 1894. A third member was added in the fall of 1894 when West Division High School opened, and two years later football became a conference sport when East Division and South Division met on the gridiron for the first time. In 1906, Boys Technical and Trade High School and North Division High School both opened, after which they became conference members. By 1920, the conference had added three more schools in Washington, Bay View and Lincoln. 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 1929.1930-1966
The City Conference added a ninth member in 1930, one year after the village of North Milwaukee was annexed into the City of Milwaukee. 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. One year later, interscholastic basketball was reinstated as a City Conference sport after it was discontinued during the early 1900s due to lack of adequate facilities. Three new high schools were built in consecutive years in the 1930s as Works Progress Administration projects: Juneau, Pulaski and Rufus King. All became members of the City Conference after opening and varsity competition coincided with each school's first senior class. 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, and two high schools were added in 1966 as a direct result of Milwaukee’s annexation of unincorporated areas in the years prior: James Madison High School in the former town of Granville and Alexander Hamilton High School 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 was renamed Brown Deer High School after the village where it was located.1966-1993
A few years after the opening of Hamilton and Madison, the City Conference's football roster subdivided along geographic lines for the 1971 season. Northern schools competed in the Gold Division and southern schools were placed in the Blue Division:| Blue Division | Gold Division |
| Bay View | Custer |
| Boys Tech | Madison |
| Hamilton | Marshall |
| Juneau | North Division |
| Lincoln | Riverside |
| Pulaski | Rufus King |
| South Division | Washington |
| West Division |
In 1979, Lincoln High School closed and Harold S. Vincent High School 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. The five-member South Shore Conference was created as a result, and competition lasted for ten years before its dissolution. Two members of the South Shore joined the City Conference, and four of the City Conference's smaller members joined the Suburban Conference. Due to the expansion of the conference's geographic footprint, the conference was briefly known as the Milwaukee Area Conference. The two-division football alignment was scrapped for the 1980 season, only to return for 1981 and continue until the next realignment. 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. The high schools in Kenosha left the MAC in 1985, taking four schools on the south side of Milwaukee with them and rejoining with the Racine high schools to form the Big Nine Conference. During that same year, the four high schools who left for the Suburban Conference rejoined after it was realigned out of existence, and the MAC changed its name back to the Milwaukee City Conference. West Division also dropped their athletic program that year when they became the Milwaukee High School of the Arts. The four south side Milwaukee high schools that were placed in the Big Nine did not want this realignment and threatened to sue the WIAA to rejoin the City Conference. Their efforts were successful in 1993, as all four schools made their return to the conference.
1993-present
With the City Conference made whole again after the 1993 realignment, new schools continued to join the conference after they opened. The conference was also partitioned into two divisions for football, named after former coaches Lisle Blackbourn and James Richardson :| Blackbourn Division | Richardson Division |
| Custer | Bay View |
| Juneau | Hamilton |
| Marshall | Madison |
| North Division | Pulaski |
| Riverside | South Division |
| Rufus King | Tech |
| Vincent | Washington |
Milwaukee School of Languages and Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning joined in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Malcolm X Academy joined the City Conference in 2003 and left when it closed four years later. Solomon Juneau High School closed in 2006, reopening in 2012 as MacDowell Montessori School. Northwest Secondary School and Reagan College Prep High School in the former Town of Lake took the place of Malcolm X Academy when it opened in 2007. Three more school openings rounded out the membership of the City Conference: Carmen in 2014, Golda Meir in 2016 and Audubon Tech in 2022.
Football (2020-present)
In February 2019, the WIAA and the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association unveiled a sweeping football-only realignment for Wisconsin to begin with the 2020 football season and run on a two-year cycle. The City Conference maintained their alignment from the year before and it remained in place through the 2022-2023 realignment cycle. In 2024, Reagan Prep and Washington swapped divisions, with Reagan joining the Richardson Division and Washington taking their place in the Blackbourn Division. For the 2026-2027 competition cycle, the City Conference will be adding two new members. Full members Milwaukee School of Languages will become the eighth member of the Richardson Division, and Fuller Collegiate Academy will be joining as an affiliate member in the Blackbourn Division.List of member schools
Current members
Associate members
Former members
Co-operative teams
Several co-op teams exist in the conference and usually include a full-time member and one or more affiliate members. The "host" school is listed in bold.- Bay View/South Division/Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning
- Bradley Tech/Carmen Northwest/Carmen South/Carmen Southeast/High School of the Arts
- Bradley Tech/Carmen Northwest/Carmen South/Carmen Southeast/Pulaski
- Bradley Tech/High School of the Arts
- Bradley Tech/High School of the Arts/South Division
- Carmen South/'Carmen Southeast
- Golda Meir/Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning
- Hamilton/Audubon Tech
- Madison University/Carmen Northwest/Fuller Collegiate Academy/Marshall
- Madison University/Vincent
- Marshall/Carmen Northwest
- Marshall/Carmen Northwest/Juneau/School of Languages
- Marshall/Carmen Northwest/School of Languages
- North Division/Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning
- Pulaski/Carmen Northwest/Carmen South/Carmen Southeast
- Pulaski/Carmen South/Carmen Southeast
- Pulaski/Carmen South/Carmen Southeast/Juneau
- Pulaski/Carmen South/Carmen Southeast/Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning
- Pulaski/Carmen Southeast
- Reagan Prep/Audubon Tech/South Division
- Reagan Prep/South Division
- Riverside University/Bradley Tech/Golda Meir/High School of the Arts
- Riverside University/Golda Meir
- Rufus King/Juneau
- Rufus King/Juneau/North Division/School of Languages/Washington
- Rufus King/North Division/School of Languages/Washington
- Vincent/Carmen Northwest/Madison University/Marshall
- Vincent/Madison University/Marshall
- Washington/Fuller Collegiate Academy
- Washington/Fuller Collegiate Academy/North Division/Obama SCTE
- Washington/Fuller Collegiate Prep/Obama SCTE
- Washington'/Obama SCTE/School of Languages
Membership timeline
Full members
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1893 till:2030
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bar:1 color:tan1 from:1893 till:1915 text:East Division, Riverside
bar:1 color:tan1 from:1915 till:1980 text:
bar:1 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2030 text:Riverside University
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1893 till:1985 text:South Division
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1993 till:2030 text:
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1894 till:1980 text:West Division
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2030 text:High School of the Arts
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1906 till:1973 text:Boys Tech
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1973 till:2002 text:Tech
bar:4 color:tan1 from:2002 till:2030 text:Bradley Tech
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1906 till:2030 text:North Division
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1911 till:2030 text:Washington
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1914 till:1985 text:Bay View
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1993 till:2030 text:
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1920 till:1979 text:Lincoln
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1930 till:2011 text:Custer
bar:9 color:tan1 from:2011 till:2030 text:Obama SCTE
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1935 till:1980 text:Juneau
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2006 text:
bar:10 color:tan1 from:2012 till:2030 text:
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1985 text:Pulaski
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1993 till:2030 text:
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1937 till:1980 text:Rufus King
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2030 text:
bar:13 color:tan1 from:1963 till:2030 text:Marshall
bar:14 color:tan1 from:1966 till:1985 text:Hamilton
bar:14 color:tan1 from:1993 till:2030 text:
bar:15 color:tan1 from:1966 till:1996 text:Madison
bar:15 color:tan1 from:1996 till:2030 text:Madison University
bar:16 color:tan1 from:1979 till:2030 text:Vincent
bar:17 color:tan1 from:1980 till:1985 text:Kenosha Tremper
bar:18 color:tan1 from:1980 till:1983 text:Racine Park
bar:19 color:tan1 from:1983 till:1985 text:Kenosha Bradford
bar:20 color:tan1 from:2000 till:2030 text:School of Languages
bar:21 color:tan1 from:2001 till:2030 text:WCLL
bar:22 color:tan1 from:2003 till:2007 text:Malcolm X Academy
bar:23 color:tan1 from:2007 till:2013 text:Northwest
bar:24 color:tan1 from:2007 till:2030 text:Reagan Prep
bar:25 color:tan1 from:2014 till:2030 text:Carmen
bar:26 color:tan1 from:2016 till:2030 text:Golda Meir
bar:27 color:tan1 from:2022 till:2030 text:Audubon Tech
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