Northern Indiana Athletic Conference


About

The Northern Indiana Conference is a high school athletic conference that was founded in 1927 and spanned from as far west as Hammond and Gary to South Bend/Mishawaka and Elkhart to the east and south to Plymouth. Since its start in 1927, a total of 32 separate schools have at one time called the NIC home. From its inception until 1963, the conference had been divided into East and West divisions. The West Division left to form the Northwestern Conference in 1963. With membership dwindling to 7 members by the 1970s, the conference added former members of the Northern Indiana Valley Conference to its ranks. Currently, every former NIVC member is now a part of the NIC except for South Bend Jackson, which closed in 1973, and South Bend LaSalle, which joined the NIC in 1977, but closed in 2001.
Like the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference, the NIAC was also a superconference that spanned several counties, and a lot of driving miles, for a period between 1940 and 1965. Throughout the 1970s the membership dwindled as many schools left to form new conferences. From 1995 to 2015 the two conferences share the same setup with 7 or 8 schools in one county, 8 in this case from St. Joseph County and 1 from an adjacent county, Elkhart in this case. This will change in 2015, as four schools from the folding Northern State Conference will join, making a 13 school conference. This will also expand the conference footprint into two counties formerly represented in the NIAC: LaPorte and Marshall. 2020 will bring more change, as Elkhart Central merges with former member Elkhart Memorial to form Elkhart high school, and Mishawaka leaves for the Northern Lakes Conference, taking Memorial's spot in that league.

Sponsored Sports

Boys

Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Soccer, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field, Wrestling

Girls

Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Gymnastics, Soccer, Softball, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field, Volleyball

Current members

  1. Elkhart Central was known as Elkhart until 1972, and will assume that name in 2020.
  2. Played concurrently in NIC and NIVC 1974-78.
  3. South Bend St. Joseph was known as South Bend St. Joseph's until 2012.

    Former members

  4. East Chicago Washington was known as East Chicago until 1928.
  5. Michigan City Elston was known as Michigan City until 1972.
  6. South Bend Central was known as South Bend until 1930.
  7. Played concurrently in the NIC and FWCS their entire membership in the NIC.
  8. Played concurrently in the NIC and NLC 1999-2000.
  9. Played concurrently in the NIC and NIVC 1976-78.

    Membership timeline


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1927 till:2027
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
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width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:red from:1927 till:1963 text:East Chicago /EC Washington
bar:2 color:red from:1927 till:end text:Elkhart /Elkhart Central
bar:3 color:red from:1927 till:1963 text:Gary Emerson
bar:4 color:red from:1927 till:1963 text:Gary Froebel
bar:5 color:red from:1927 till:1963 text:Gary Mann
bar:6 color:red from:1927 till:1969 text:Goshen
bar:7 color:red from:1927 till:1963 text:Hammond
bar:8 color:red from:1927 till:1976 text:LaPorte
bar:9 color:red from:1927 till:1995 text:Michigan City /MC Elston
bar:10 color:red from:1927 till:end text:Mishawaka
bar:11 color:red from:1927 till:1930 text:Plymouth
bar:12 color:red from:1927 till:1970 text:South Bend /SB Central
bar:13 color:red from:1927 till:1930 text:Valparaiso,,
bar:13 color:red from:1945 till:1948 text:
bar:13 color:red from:1953 till:1963 text:
bar:14 color:red from:1927 till:1963 text:Whiting
bar:15 color:red from:1929 till:1963 text:East Chicago Roosevelt
bar:16 color:red from:1931 till:end text:South Bend Riley
bar:17 color:red from:1935 till:1963 text:Gary Wallace
bar:18 color:red from:1937 till:1963 text:Hammond Tech
bar:19 color:red from:1938 till:end text:South Bend Washington
bar:20 color:red from:1941 till:1963 text:Gary Tolleston
bar:21 color:red from:1941 till:1963 text:Hammond Clark
bar:22 color:red from:1941 till:end text:South Bend Adams
bar:23 color:red from:1942 till:1965 text:Fort Wayne North Side
bar:24 color:red from:1977 till:end text:Penn
bar:25 color:red from:1977 till:2002 text:South Bend LaSalle
bar:26 color:red from:1979 till:end text:South Bend Clay
bar:27 color:red from:2005 shift: till:end text:Mishawaka Marian
bar:28 color:red from:2005 shift: till:end text:South Bend St. Joseph
bar:29 color:red from:2015 shift: till:end text:Bremen
bar:30 color:red from:2015 shift: till:end text:Glenn
bar:31 color:red from:2015 shift: till:end text:Jimtown
bar:32 color:red from:2015 shift: till:end text:New Prairie
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1927
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos: # tabs:
text:"Northern Indiana Conference Membership History"

Rivalries

Main rivalries:
Notable sub-rivalries
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State Championships

Bremen (3)

Mishawaka (7)

Penn (21)