The Big Eight Conference was a high school athletic league in Iowa made up of some of the largest schools in the state.

Members

Ames Ames may refer to: Places United States * Ames, Arkansas, a place in Arkansas * Ames, Colorado * Ames, Illinois * Ames, Indiana * Ames, Iowa, the most populous city bearing this name * Ames, Kansas * Ames, Nebraska * Ames, New York * Ames, ...

* Cedar Falls *Fort Dodge *

Marshalltown Marshalltown is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Iowa, United States, located along the Iowa River. It is the seat and most populous settlement of Marshall County and the 16th largest city in Iowa, with a population of 27,591 at ...

* Mason City *Newton *

Waterloo East Waterloo East railway station, also known as London Waterloo East, is a railway station in central London on the line from through London Bridge towards Kent, in the south-east of England. It is to the east of London Waterloo railway statio ...

* Waterloo West

History

The Big Eight Conference was formed in 1963 when Des Moines North and Des Moines East left the old Big Six Conference to compete in the Metropolitan Conference. The league's four remaining members (Fort Dodge, Mason City, and the Waterloo schools) reached out to other large schools in central Iowa to rebuild the conference. Cedar Falls joined from the

Northeast Iowa Conference The Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) is a six school athletic conference made up of mid-sized schools in the Northeast Corner of Iowa. The conference dates in 1920, making it one of Iowa's oldest existing athletic conferences. Members Departin ...

and Ames, Marshalltown, and Newton joined from the Central Iowa Conference. The conference became known as the Big Nine Conference when Waterloo Central opened in 1972. The name would be changed back to the Big Eight Conference in 1988 when Waterloo Central, as part of a school district reorganization, was converted to a junior high school. From the onset, the league was one of the strongest in the state. In its first year of competition, league schools captured state championships in four of the seven sports the

IHSAA IHSAA, as an abbreviation or acronym, may refer to the NFHS-accredited high school athletic associations in a number of states: * Idaho High School Activities Association * Indiana High School Athletic Association * Iowa High School Athletic Assoc ...

conducted championships for at the time. The league also claimed the first two 5-on-5 girls' basketball titles in state history (for many years the IGHSAU only sponsored 6-on-6 basketball). Among other notable achievements, the league also had a stronghold on the boys' cross country title for 12 years, winning a state title all but one year from 1964 to 1975. The league was stable until the late 1980s when Newton and

left to join the

Central Iowa Metro League The Central Iowa Metro League (also called CIML) is a high school athletic conference whose members are located in the suburban cities of Des Moines, Iowa, . The conference includes 9 schools, all of which compete at the 4A classification lev ...

. Soon after, the other members of the conference began looking for new homes. Marshalltown found a home in the CIML. Cedar Falls, Waterloo East, and Waterloo West then joined the Mississippi Valley Conference and Fort Dodge and Mason City, geographic outliers to among the rest of the state's largest schools, followed Marshalltown, Ames, and Newton to the CIML after being originally being declined membership in the league.

State Champions

Ames

*Boys' Basketball: 1973, 1976, 1991 *Boys' Cross Country: 1967, 1968, 1973, 1975, 1983, 1989 *Boys' Golf: 1968, 1982, 1986 *Boys' Swimming: 1982 *Boys' Track & Field: 1964, 1965, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1980, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 *Girls' Golf: 1989 *Girls' Track & Field: 1981, 1987, 1988

Cedar Falls

*Football: 1986 *Boys' Cross Country: 1969 *Wrestling: 1968, 1976 *Girls' Golf: 1975 *Girls' Swimming: 1986

Fort Dodge

*Baseball: 1969 *Boys' Basketball: 1988 *Wrestling: 1980, 1985 *Girls' Basketball: 1985

Marshalltown

*Baseball: 1976, 1981, 1985, 1986 *Boys' Basketball: 1966 *Boys' Cross Country: 1964, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1975 *Boys' Track & Field: 1985 *Girls' Basketball: 1986

Mason City

*Baseball: 1972 *Football: 1978 *Boys' Cross Country: 1972, 1973 *Boys' Swimming: 1975, 1979, 1991 *Girls' Swimming: 1987, 1988, 1989

Newton

*Boys' Basketball: 1964 *Football: 1980 *Boys' Golf: 1990

Waterloo East

*Boys' Basketball: 1974, 1990 *Boys' Track & Field: 1979 *Wrestling: 1964, 1983

Waterloo West

*Baseball: 1991 *Boys' Cross Country: 1970 *Boys' Golf: 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977 *Boys' Tennis: 1991 *Boys' Track & Field: 1981 *Wrestling: 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1977, 1989 *Girls' Golf: 1981 {{Iowa High School Athletic Conferences , state=autocollapse 1963 establishments in Iowa High school sports conferences and leagues in the United States High school sports in Iowa Sports leagues established in 1963 Defunct sports leagues in the United States