The Four County Conference, more commonly known as the 4-C Conference, is a former high school

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Formed in 1934 and disbanded in 1953, its membership was concentrated in southeastern Wisconsin, northwest of the Milwaukee area. All members were affiliated with the

Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) is the regulatory body for all high school sports in Wisconsin. Its history dates to 1895, making it the earliest continually existing high school athletic organization in the country. ...

History

The 4-C Conference was organized in 1934 by four small high schools on the outskirts of the Milwaukee suburbs: Cedarburg,

Juneau Juneau ( ; ), officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of wha ...

Menomonee Falls Menomonee Falls is a village in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. Its population was 38,527 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most-populous village in Wisconsin. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. ...

and

Pewaukee Pewaukee is a city in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 15,914 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The name of the city of Pewaukee comes from that of the name of the village, the ori ...

. The conference was named after the four counties in southeastern Wisconsin (

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence, Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

, Ozaukee,

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

and Waukesha) where member schools were located. Hartland joined from the Little Five and Slinger joined from the Fox Valley Tri-County League in 1935, bringing conference membership to six schools. Grafton was also invited to join the 4-C Conference that year, but ultimately decided to remain in the Kettle Moraine Conference. The 4-C Conference operated as a six-member circuit for eighteen years before disbanding in 1953. Cedarburg and Menomonee Falls, the two largest schools in the conference, had previously submitted multiple bids to join the

Little Ten Conference The Little Ten Conference is the oldest continuous high school athletic conference in the state of Illinois. Founded in 1919, it comprised the following small high schools in northern Illinois: Earlville, Hinckley, Leland, Paw Paw, Plano, ...

dating back to 1947, all of which were rejected. Both schools joined with longtime independents (and fellow failed Little Ten applicants) Port Washington and Watertown to form the Braveland Conference and dropped any further pursuit of Little Ten membership. Three of the remaining schools (Hartland, Pewaukee and Slinger) joined the

Southeastern Wisconsin Conference The Southeastern Wisconsin Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, operating from 1928 to 1963. All but one of its member schools belonged to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. History 1929-1953 ...

, and Juneau became members of the

Madison Suburban Conference The Madison Suburban Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, founded in 1926 and ending competition in 1969. Its members were located in south central Wisconsin, predominantly around the Madison, Wisconsin, Madison ar ...

Conference membership history

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1934 till:1953 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:13 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:tan1 from:1934 till:1953 text:Cedarburg (1934-1953) bar:2 color:tan1 from:1934 till:1953 text:Juneau (1934-1953) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1934 till:1953 text:Menomonee Falls (1934-1953) bar:4 color:tan1 from:1934 till:1953 text:Pewaukee (1934-1953) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1935 till:1953 text:Hartland (1935-1953) bar:6 color:tan1 from:1935 till:1953 text:Slinger (1935-1953) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1934

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Football

References

{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Wisconsin high school sports conferences Sports organizations established in 1934 1934 establishments in Wisconsin 1953 disestablishments in Wisconsin