Established 1927 | Region North Central Indiana | |
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Members 1 Class 6 A, 2 Class 5A, 5 Class 4A, 4 Class 3A, 1 Class 2A | ||
About
The Northern Indiana Conference is a high school athletic conference that was founded in 1927 and spanned from as far west as Hammond and Gary to South Bend/Mishawaka and Elkhart to the east and south to Plymouth. Since its start in 1927, a total of 32 separate schools have at one time called the NIC home. From its inception until 1963, the conference had been divided into East and West divisions. The West Division (as well as Valparaiso) left to form the Northwestern Conference in 1963. With membership dwindling to 7 members by the 1970s, the conference added former members of the Northern Indiana Valley Conference to its ranks. Currently, every former NIVC member is now a part of the NIC except for South Bend Jackson, which closed in 1973, and South Bend LaSalle, which joined the NIC in 1977, but closed in 2001.
Contents
- About
- Boys
- Girls
- Current members
- Former members
- Rivalries
- Bremen 2
- Elkhart Central 6
- Jimtown 6
- Mishawaka 7
- Mishawaka Marian 11
- Penn 20
- South Bend Adams 8
- South Bend Clay 2
- South Bend Riley 10
- South Bend St Joseph 9
- South Bend Washington 2
- Related links
- Conference Champions
- References
Like the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference, the NIAC was also a superconference that spanned several counties, and a lot of driving miles, for a period between 1940 and 1965. Throughout the 1970s the membership dwindled as many schools left to form new conferences. From 1995 to 2015 the two conferences share the same setup with 7 or 8 schools in one county, 8 in this case from St. Joseph County and 1 from an adjacent county, Elkhart in this case. This will change in 2015, as four schools from the folding Northern State Conference will join, making a 13 school conference. This will also expand the conference footprint into two counties formerly represented in the NIAC: LaPorte (last represented in 1995) and Marshall (last represented in 1930).
Boys
Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Soccer, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field, Wrestling
Girls
Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Gymnastics, Soccer, Softball, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field, Volleyball
Current members
- Elkhart Central was known as Elkhart until 1972.
- South Bend St. Joseph was known as South Bend St. Joseph's until 2012.
Former members
- East Chicago Washington was known as East Chicago until 1928.
- Michigan City Elston was known as Michigan City until 1972.
- South Bend Central was known as South Bend until 1930.
- Fort Wayne North Side played concurrently in the NIC and FWCS their entire membership in the NIC.
- Elkhart Memorial played concurrently in the NIC and NLC for the 1999-2000 school year.
Rivalries
Main rivalries:
Notable sub-rivalries
(Asterisk indicates non-member of NIAC)
(Degree indicates a non-NIAC sanctioned sport)