Northern Illinois Conference (athletic conference) explained

Northern Illinois Conference
Conference:	IHSA
Teams:	10
Region:	Illinois (Boone, Stephenson, and Winnebago counties)
Map:	Map_of_the_counties_in_the_Northern_Illinois_Conference.png
Map Size:	250px

The Northern Illinois Conference (NIC-10) is a high school athletic conference consisting of nine high public schools and one Catholic school in Illinois' Boone, Stephenson, and Winnebago Counties. Member schools are also full members of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), and are among the larger schools in that area, all competing in Class AA (in the two class system) of IHSA competitions.

Current members

School	Location	Mascot	Colors	Year Joined	IHSA Classes A/AA^[1]	Website	Reference
Auburn High School		Knights	Red, Black	1960	AA/3A/4A ^[2]	Web site: Home of the Knights. https://web.archive.org/web/20140420064441/http://www2.rps205.com/Schools/HS/Auburn/Pages/Home.aspx . 2014-04-20 .	^[3]
			Gold, Purple	1963	A/AA/2A/3A ^[4]	Belvidere Community Unit School District 100	^[5]
	Belvidere		Navy Blue, Scarlet Red, Vegas Gold	2006	AA/2A/3A/4A ^[6]	Belvidere North High School	^[7]
	Rockford		Green, White	1964	AA/2A/3A/4A ^[8]	Boylan Catholic High School	^[9]
East High School	Rockford		Red, Black	1940	AA/2A/3A/4A ^[10]	East High School	^[11]
		Pretzels	Orange, Black	1916	AA/2A/3A ^[12]		^[13]
	Rockford	Vikings	Columbia Blue, White	1963	AA/3A/4A ^[14]	Guilford High School	^[15]
			Black, Orange	1963	AA/3A/4A ^[16]	Harlem High School	^[17]
			Purple, Gold	1982	AA/3A/4A ^[18]	Hononegah Community High School District 207	^[19]
			^[20] Red, White, Gold	1971	2A/3A/4A ^[21]	Jefferson High School	^[22]

* Depending on the sport/activity, schools compete in a variety of class systems. The classes are listed in that order in this table.

Previous members

School	Location	Mascot	Colors	Year Joined	Year Left	Total Years	Current Conference	Website	Reference
DeKalb High School	DeKalb, IL	Barbs	Orange, Black	1916 1919	1917 1929	13	DuPage Valley Conference	DeKalb High School	^[23]
Rockford Central High School	Rockford, IL	Rabs	Red, Black	1916	1940	24	School Closed		^[24]
Aurora East High School	Aurora, IL	Tomcats	Red, Black	1916	1963	47	Upstate Eight Conference	East Aurora High School	^[25]
Aurora West High School	Aurora, IL	Blackhawks	Red, Blue	1916	1963	47	Southwest Prairie Conference	West Aurora High School	^[26]
Elgin High School	Elgin, IL	Maroons	Maroon, Cream	1916	1963	47	Upstate Eight Conference	Elgin High School	^[27]
Joliet Township High School	Joliet, IL	Steelmen	Royal Blue, Gold	1916	1960	44	Southwest Prairie Conference	Joliet Township High School	^[28]
LaSalle-Peru High School	LaSalle, IL	Cavaliers	Red, Green	1936	1964	28	Interstate Eight Conference	LaSalle-Peru Township High School	^[29]
Rockford West High School	Rockford, IL	Warriors	Red, Black	1940	1989	49	Converted to a middle school		^[30]

History

The Northern Illinois High School Conference (NIHSC) was founded in 1916 as a high school football conference. Boys track and basketball soon followed, and other sports were added over time. Original members included Freeport High School, Rockford High School, Joliet High School, Elgin High School, DeKalb High School, Aurora East High School, and Aurora West High School. DeKalb withdrew after one season, and for two years the league operated with six schools. The flu pandemic of 1918, which hit the Rockford area particularly hard, caused the cancellation of that year’s football season, and when league play returned in 1919, DeKalb rejoined. At this time, newspapers began referring to the league as the Big 7 for brevity.^[31]

In 1929, DeKalb again left the conference with six teams, and the league was known as the Big 6 until LaSalle-Peru High School joined in 1936. In the spring of 1940, Rockford High School was replaced by Rockford West and Rockford East, and the conference naturally became the Big 8.^[32]

1940 to 1960 was a period of stability, as the league operated with the same eight members spread over five far-flung counties. However, the high school building boom that began throughout northern Illinois in the late 1950s led to a series of conference realignments that brought rapid changes and a geographic shift to the Big 8. The first in this series of moves was Joliet’s departure for the South Suburban Conference in 1960. The Steelmen were replaced by the newly opened Rockford Auburn High School that same year. In 1963, NIHSC charter members East Aurora, West Aurora, and Elgin departed to help form the new Upstate 8 Conference, and Harlem High School, Belvidere High School, and the newly opened Rockford Guilford High School immediately stepped in to take their place. With the other seven league members now concentrated in the farthest reaches of northern Illinois, LaSalle-Peru withdrew in 1964 to join the North Central Illinois Conference, which was closer to home. Boylan Central Catholic High School, the league’s only private school, replaced the Cavaliers that same year.^[33]

The Big 8 became the Big 9 with the addition of Rockford Jefferson High School in 1971.

In 1982, Hononegah High School joined the league, and to avoid the obvious confusion with the collegiate Big 10, the league returned to its roots by becoming the Northern Illinois Conference (NIC-10).

The league became the NIC-9 when Rockford West was closed after the 1988–89 school year, and reverted to NIC-10 when Belvidere North High School opened in 2007. Freeport High School remains the only original member of the conference.

^[34]

Expansion

In April 2018, requests from both Kaneland High School and DeKalb High School for consideration to be admitted to the conference starting in the 2019-20 school year were sent to the NIC-10 president, Freeport principal Dr. Beth Summers.^[35] On May 14, 2018, Kaneland was rejected by the NIC-10 and joined the Interstate Eight Conference.^[36] Based on a May 24, 2018 announcement, the NIC-10 unanimously voted to table discussions toward expansion, denying DeKalb the opportunity to return to the conference after a 90 year absence.^[37]

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyyImageSize = width:1350 height:auto barincrement:20Period = from:1916 till:2022TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalPlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#Colors = id:barcolor id:line value:pink id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.78,0.391,0.654) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:Full from:1916 till:1917 text:DeKalb (1916) (1919–1929) bar:1 color:Full from:1919 till:1929 text:

bar:2 color:Full from:1916 till:1940 text:Rockford (HS) (1916–1940) bar:2 color:white from:1940 till:end text:School Closed - Rockford East maintains history of school

bar:3 color:Full from:1916 till:1963 text:Aurora East (1916-1963) bar:3 color:white from:1963 till:end text:Moved to the Upstate 8 Conference

bar:4 color:Full from:1916 till:1963 text:Aurora West (1916-1963) bar:4 color:white from:1963 till:end text:Moved to the Upstate 8 Conference

bar:5 color:Full from:1916 till:1963 text:Elgin (1916–1963) bar:5 color:white from:1963 till:end text:Moved to the Upstate 8 Conference

bar:6 color:Full from:1916 till:1963 text:Joliet (1916–1960) bar:6 color:white from:1963 till:end text:Moved to the South Suburban Conference

bar:7 color:Full from:1916 till:end text:Freeport (1916–Present)

bar:8 color:Full from:1929 till:1964 text:LaSalle-Peru (1936-1964) bar:8 color:white from:1964 till:end text:Moved to the North Central Illinois Conference

bar:9 color:Full from:1940 till:end text:Rockford East (1940-Present)

bar:10 color:Full from:1940 till:1989 text:Rockford West (1940-1989) bar:10 color:white from:1989 till:end text:School Closed - West converts to a middle school

bar:11 color:Full from:1960 till:end text:Rockford Auburn (1960-Present)

bar:12 color:Full from:1963 till:end text:Machesney Park Harlem (1963–Present)

bar:13 color:Full from:1963 till:end text:Rockford Guiford (1963-Present)

bar:14 color:Full from:1963 till:end text:Belvidere (1963–Present)

bar:15 color:Full from:1964 till:end text:Rockford Boylan (1964–Present)

bar:16 color:Full from:1971 till:end text:Rockford Jefferson (1971-Present)

bar:17 color:Full from:1982 till:end text:Rockton Hononegah (1982–Present)

bar:18 color:Full from:2006 till:end text:Belvidere North (2006-Present)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1920TextData =

fontsize:L

textcolor:black

pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)

text:^"NIC-10 Membership History"

1. > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

State championships

69 IHSA State Championships have been earned by the conference membership:

• Basketball (boys)-9: Rockford High School (1918–19, 1938–39); Elgin (1923–24, 24–25); Freeport (1925–26, 50–51); Joliet Township (1936–37); Rockford West (1954–55, 55–56)^[38]
• Bowling (boys)-8: Jefferson (2002–03); Freeport (2007–08); Guilford (2010–11, 2013–14); Hononegah (2014–15, 2017–18); Harlem (2016–17, 2018–19)^[39]
• Bowling (girls)-9: Rockford East (1996–97); Jefferson (2007–08); Harlem (1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2004–05, 2010–11, 2016–17, 2017-18)^[40]
• Chess-3: Jefferson (1990–91); Auburn (1991–92, 92–93)^[41]
• Competitive Cheerleading (coed) 3: Belvidere North (2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19)^[42]
• Cross Country (boys)-2: Belvidere North (2009–10, 10-11)^[43]
• Cross Country (girls)-3: Guilford (1981–82) Belvidere North (2016–17, 2018–19)^[44]
• Field Hockey (girls)-1: Rockford West (1975–76)
• Football-7: Rockford East (1974–75, 85–86); Guilford (1982–83); Belvidere (1993–94, 1994–95); Boylan (2010–11, 2011–12)^[45]
• Golf (boys)-12: Rockford East (1941–42, 42–43, 43–44, 44–45, 46–47, 56–57); Rockford West (1940–41); Guilford (1974–75, 75–76, 83–84, 85–86); Boylan (2002–03)^[46]
• Golf (girls)-1: Guilford (1994–95)^[47]
• Golf (girls -individual)-1: RPS205 Coop Team (2015–16) Madasyn Pettersen (Guilford)^[48]
• Journalism-1: Jefferson (2006–07)^[49]
• Scholastic Bowl-2: Auburn (2007–08, 2014–15)^[50]
• Soccer (boys)-1: Boylan (2010–11)^[51]
• Softball-2: Harlem (1979–80, 98–99)^[52]
• Swimming & Diving (boys)-1: Rockford High School (1932–33)^[53]
• Track & Field (boys)-5: Joliet Township (1915–16); Rockford High School (1926–27, 32–33, 34–35); Freeport (2016–17)^[54]
• Debate (Public Policy)- 1: Belvidere North (2018–19)

Notes and References

1. http://www.ihsa.org/school/enrolla.htm
2. Web site: Rockford (Auburn). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
3. Web site: Rockford (Auburn). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
4. Web site: Belvidere (H.S.). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
5. Web site: Belvidere (H.S.). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
6. Web site: Belvidere (North). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
7. Web site: Belvidere (North). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
8. Web site: Rockford (Boylan). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
9. Web site: Rockford (Boylan). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
10. Web site: Rockford (East). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
11. Web site: Rockford (East). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
12. Web site: Freeport (H.S.). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
13. Web site: Freeport (H.S.). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
14. Web site: Rockford (Guilford). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
15. Web site: Rockford (Guilford). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
16. Web site: Machesney Park (Harlem). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
17. Web site: Machesney Park (Harlem). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
18. Web site: Machesney Park (Harlem). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
19. Web site: Rockton (Hononegah). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
20. Web site: Jefferson High School Basketball. CBS Interactive. 11 January 2013. 7 August 2013.
21. Web site: Rockton (Hononegah). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 12 June 2013. 28 July 2013 .
22. Web site: Rockford (Jefferson). Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 1 April 2010. 27 April 2010.
23. Web site: DeKalb High School.
24. Web site: Rockford High School.
25. Web site: East Aurora High School.
26. Web site: West Aurora High School.
27. Web site: Elgin High School.
28. Web site: Joliet Township High School.
29. Web site: LaSalle-Peru High School.
30. Web site: Rockford West High School.
31. Solarz, Steve. Aurora's East-West Football Rivalry. The History Press. Charleston, SC. 2014
32. Solarz, Steve. Aurora's East-West Football Rivalry. The History Press. Charleston, SC. 2014
33. Solarz, Steve. Aurora's East-West Football Rivalry. The History Press. Charleston, SC. 2014
34. Web site: Big 7. Illinois High School Glory Days. 27 April 2010. 23 April 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160423074537/http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id349.html. dead.
35. https://statelinesportsnetwork.net/2018/04/12/dekalb-and-kaneland-closing-in-on-nic-10-membership/ StateLineSportsNetwork.net
36. http://www.kcchronicle.com/2018/05/15/kaneland-approves-one-year-contract-with-interstate-eight-for-2019-2020-school-year/axwa491/ Kane County Chronicle
37. https://statelinesportsnetwork.net/2018/05/24/nic-10-says-no-to-any-expansion/ StateLineSportsNetwork.net
38. Web site: Boys Basketball Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
39. Web site: Boys Bowling Team Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
40. Web site: Girls Bowling Team Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
41. Web site: Chess Team Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
42. Web site: Competitive Cheerleading Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
43. Web site: Boys Cross Country Team Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
44. Web site: Girls Cross Country Team Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
45. Web site: Boys Football Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
46. Web site: Boys Golf Team Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
47. Web site: Girls Golf Team Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
48. Web site: Girls Golf Individual Champions. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
49. Web site: Journalism Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
50. Web site: Scholastic Bowl Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
51. Web site: Boys Soccer Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
52. Web site: Girls Softball Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
53. Web site: Boys Swimming & Diving Team Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.
54. Web site: Boys Track & Field Team Champions and Runners-Up. Illinois High School Association (IHSA). 17 May 2018.