The Milwaukee Catholic Conference was formed in 1930 by six parochial high schools in the Greater Milwaukee area. Three members were located in Milwaukee (Marquette University, Messmer, St. John's Cathedral) along with Pio Nono in St. Francis, St. Bonaventure in Sturtevant and St. Catherine's in Racine.[1]St. Mary's High School in Burlington joined the conference in 1932,[2] but their stay would be brief as they left two years later to compete as an independent.[3] Membership in the Milwaukee Catholic Conference was brought back up to seven schools in 1935 when St. Stanislaus (later Notre Dame) joined the loop.[4] St. Bonaventure left the conference in 1937[5] before rejoining in 1940. Along with newcomers St. Benedict the Moor, membership in the Milwaukee Catholic Conference increased to eight schools.[6] In 1941, Pio Nono High School became St. Francis Minor Seminary and inherited their place in the conference.[7] The recently opened Pius XI High School joined the Milwaukee Catholic Conference in 1942,[8] taking the place of St. Bonaventure, who left the conference for a second time due to wartime-related transportation issues.[9] They returned to the conference after the completion of World War II,[10] along with Don Bosco High School, who joined for football in 1946 and all sports the year after.[11] St. Benedict and St. Francis Minor Seminary left the conference in 1948, leaving eight schools in the circuit.[12]Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha opened in 1952 and joined the Milwaukee Catholic Conference that same year.[13] Membership increased to eleven when two newly opened schools, Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay and St. Joseph High School in Kenosha joined in 1958,[14] and twelve in 1959 when St. Benedict the Moor rejoined.[15]
In 1960, the Milwaukee Catholic Conference split into two divisions of six schools each, the White Division for larger schools and the Gold Division for smaller schools:[16]
Gold Division
White Division
Catholic Memorial
Don Bosco
Dominican
Marquette University
Notre Dame
Messmer
St. Benedict
Pius XI
St. Bonaventure
St. Catherine's
St. John's Cathedral
St. Joseph
This alignment would stay in place for two years, when the conference went back to a single division. This was due in part to the addition of a thirteenth member (the newly opened Francis Jordan High School) and the growth of Catholic Memorial and Dominican beyond the small school enrollment threshold.[17] This number turned out to be a high water mark as Catholic high schools in the Milwaukee archdiocese began to close or consolidate in the mid-1960s. The first casualty was St. Benedict the Moor High School, which closed in 1964 to make room for the construction of Interstate Highway 43 through the north side of downtown Milwaukee.[18] Pio Nono was reopened as a high school in 1965[19] and made its return to the conference in 1968,[20] offsetting the loss of Francis Jordan High School, which closed in 1969 due to lack of adequate facilities.[21][22] In 1972, Don Bosco and Pio Nono would merge to form St. Thomas More High School on the south side of Milwaukee.[23] Membership would decrease to its final figure of nine schools when Notre Dame and St. Bonaventure, the two smallest schools in the conference, left to become charter members of the Classic Conference in 1973.[24] The end of the Milwaukee Catholic Conference would come in 1974, when Milwaukee Lutheran High School left the Midwest Prep Conference and became the first non-Catholic high school admitted into the group.[25] The league's name was changed to the Metro Conference[26] and continued competition until the dissolution of the WISAA in 1997.[27]
^ abLutz, Greg; Showalter, Jarrod (16 May 2019). "St. Benedict the Moor"(PDF). Gathering Places: Religion & Community in Milwaukee. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
