The South Shore Conference is a former high school athletic conference in

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 ...

, operating from 1970 to 1980 with its membership concentrated in

Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tra ...

and

Kenosha Kenosha () is a city in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is the fourth-most populous city in Wisconsin, with a population of 99,986 at the 2020 census. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Ke ...

History

Prior to the creation of the South Shore Conference, the public high schools in Racine and Kenosha were part of the Big Eight, a conference of large high schools in southern Wisconsin that also included schools from

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States * Madison (footballer), Brazilian footballer Places in the United States Populated places * Madi ...

, Janesville and Beloit. As new schools were added to districts due to population growth, membership had experienced a net increase to twelve by the end of the 1960s. Tensions increased between the Madison-area schools and those in southeastern Wisconsin, and the South Shore Conference was formed in 1970 after the five schools in Racine and Kenosha were forced out by the rest of the Big Eight members. This was a move that was met with some opposition by the WIAA since a five-team conference was widely seen as inadequately sized. After several years of attempting to merge the South Shore Conference with several large conferences in southern Wisconsin (including a failed attempt to create a cross-border league with high schools in northern

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

), the conference was dissolved in 1980. The five schools were spread out over four existing conferences before reconstituting as the Big Nine Conference (along with four high schools on the south side of

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

) in 1985.

Conference membership history

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1970 till:1980 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:1970 till:1980 text:Kenosha Bradford (1970-1980) bar:2 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1980 text:Kenosha Tremper (1970-1980) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1980 text:Racine Case (1970-1980) bar:4 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1980 text:Racine Horlick (1970-1980) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1980 text:Racine Park (1970-1980) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1970

List of state champions

Fall sports

Winter sports

None

Spring sports

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Girls Basketball

Football

References

{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Wisconsin high school sports conferences Sports organizations established in 1970 1970 establishments in Wisconsin 1980 disestablishments in Wisconsin