In celebration of 100 years of the Northern Indiana Conference, the South Bend Tribune will publish one feature each month from August 2026-June 2027 about the history of the conference. This is the first story in the series.
Schools like South Bend Adams, Riley and Washington have been staples of the NIC for so long that it’s hard to imagine a version of the conference without them. Washington and Adams each joined as soon as the schools opened in 1938 and 1941, respectively, and Riley joined just seven years after opening. Even Penn has been in the conference for more than 50 years after joining in 1974.
However, the NIC — originally named the Northern Indiana High School Conference (NIHSC) — was founded in January 1927 and included just one South Bend high school: South Bend Central. Of the original 13 members, just one still remains in the conference, that being Elkhart.
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Five of the original member high schools have since closed, one has consolidated and one has both expanded and consolidated back into one. Many of the original members were in the conference for decades, most notably Mishawaka, which was part of the NIC from the 1926-27 academic year until leaving for the Northern Lakes Conference in 2020. Others only stayed for a few years, like Plymouth, which left after just four seasons.
How the NIC was born
According to NIC secretary Greg Humnicky and Penn assistant athletic director Marie Doan, the idea for the original NIC was first started by East Chicago Washington football coach and principal Frank Cash, Elkhart track coach Chelsea Boone, La Porte football and basketball coach Sewell Leitzman, and South Bend Central multi-sport coach Elmer Burnham.
The framework for the conference was laid out in a meeting in the spring of 1926, with the conference guidelines being set in December of that year. Others who attended the meeting were Gary football coach and athletic director Jack Gilroy, Gary Emerson principal E.A. Spaulding, Gary Froebel’s Homer T. Osborn, Mishawaka football coach and athletic director Frank Steele, Plymouth’s Forrest Wood, and Valparaiso multi-sport coach J.B. Brown.
While representatives from Goshen, Hammond, Michigan City Elston and Whiting did not attend the December meeting, each school was also made an original member of the conference. Originally, Nappanee (which consolidated with Wakarusa in the 1960s to become the current NorthWood) attempted to become an original member but joined one year after the conference’s inception.
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Even though the NIC was made an official IHSAA member conference in January 1927, the 1926-27 academic year was its inaugural season. The NIC is one of the oldest active conferences in the IHSAA, and its rich history includes 15 South Bend Tribune coverage area schools and three South Bend schools that have since closed.
Its original eight sports (all boys) included baseball, basketball, football, golf, swimming, tennis, track and wrestling.
The current eight-school NIC group has been established since 2020, and it’s a stark contrast to what the original field looked like. For comparison, the longest distance between member schools in the current iteration is 37 miles between Elkhart and New Prairie. The longest distance between original members was 107 miles between Goshen and Whiting.
One of the stipulations in the inaugural meeting’s conference guidelines? Each member school must play against each other at least once in basketball. It’s a good thing the United States Numbered Highway System was made official the same year the NIC was, but it was another 13 years until the framework for the interstate system to come into motion.
Although the conference was soon split into Eastern and Western divisions as up to 22 schools joined, two original schools nearly in different states were technically conference rivals for nearly 40 years.
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The NIC has been ever changing for 100 years, but in order to celebrate all of the great athletes, coaches, teams and more that have come from it, it’s important to recognize what the conference looked like at its birth a century ago.
Original NIC members, 1926-27
- Elkhart (became Central in 1972, merged with Memorial in 2020)
- East Chicago Washington (left in 1963, closed in 1986)
- Gary Emerson (left in 1963, closed in 2008)
- Gary Froebel (left in 1963, closed in 1977)
- Goshen (left in 1969)
- Hammond (left in 1963, closed in 2021)
- La Porte (left in 1976)
- Michigan City Elston (left and consolidated into Michigan City in 1995)
- Mishawaka (left in 2020)
- Plymouth (left in 1930)
- South Bend Central (left/closed in 1970)
- Valparaiso (left and re-joined multiple times. Now reside in the Duneland Athletic Conference)
- Whiting (left in 1963)
First NIC Champions
- Baseball: South Bend Central
- Basketball: Gary Froebel
- Football: Gary Froebel
- Golf: South Bend Central
- Swimming: South Bend Central
- Tennis: Gary Froebel
- Track: Gary Froebel (also IHSAA state champions)
- Wrestling: Gary Froebel
Kyle Smedley is a sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at ksmedley@usatodayco.com or follow him on X @KyleMSmedley.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: The NIC celebrates 100 years this year. Here's what it looked like in 1926-27