1925–1942 {{OSM Location map The Suburban Conference, originally known as the
Milwaukee Suburban Interscholastic Athletic Association, was formed in 1925 by seven high schools located in the
streetcar suburbs of Milwaukee:
Cudahy,
Milwaukee County Agricultural,
Shorewood,
South Milwaukee,
Waukesha,
Wauwatosa and
West Allis. It was the second athletic conference to form in the Milwaukee area, preceded only by the Milwaukee City Conference in 1893. Milwaukee County School of Agriculture left the conference when it closed in 1928, and its place was taken by the newly opened high school in
West Milwaukee in 1929.
Whitefish Bay joined the conference in 1933, and their entry into the Suburban Conference brought the membership group to the maximum number of eight schools per the conference's original constitution. and they joined the conference in 1942. West Allis High School changed their name to West Allis Central in the process. Nathan Hale's entry brought the number of member schools in the conference to nine, breaking the 1925 constitutional limit on the number of members. After making unsuccessful overtures to
Oconomowoc High School to leave the
Little Ten Conference, the Suburban Conference extended an invite to the recently opened
Greendale High School, and they joined in 1952.
Port Washington and
Watertown were also reported as candidates for expansion but instead formed half of the new
Braveland Conference (along with
Cedarburg and
Menomonee Falls of the disbanded
4-C Conference) in 1953.
Wauwatosa West High School joined the conference soon after it opened in 1961, with Wauwatosa High School becoming Wauwatosa East. They replaced Greendale, who left to join the
Braveland Conference for two years before becoming a charter member of the
Parkland Conference. A conference realignment plan that merged the Suburban and Braveland Conferences was also discussed that year but never implemented. 1974 brought an eleventh member to the conference in the form of the newly opened
Waukesha North High School, and Waukesha High School changed its name to Waukesha South.
1980–1985 {{OSM Location map mark-description15=Location: shape15=circle Wauwatosa West and Whitefish Bay were moved over to the small-school division for football in 1982, bringing each division to eight schools. In 1983,
Racine Case joined from the
Parkland Conference and
Racine Park joined from the
Milwaukee Area Conference, reuniting the three high schools of the
Racine Unified School District. For the last two years of the Suburban Conference's existence, it was aligned into two divisions for most sports based on enrollment size: the Gold Division contained larger schools and the Blue Division contained the smaller ones: Racine Case and Racine Park joined the large-schools division for football, and they would remain there for the final two seasons of conference play.
Epilogue The Suburban Conference was realigned out of existence in 1985, with most of its members joining three newly formed conferences in southeastern Wisconsin (the
Big Nine,
North Shore and
Suburban Park conferences). The two Waukesha high schools joined an overhauled
Braveland Conference, the four Milwaukee high schools rejoined the
City Conference, and West Milwaukee joined the
Parkland Conference (where it would remain until it closed in 1992). == Conference membership history ==