Toledo City League

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The Toledo City League, or known simply as the "City League" in the Toledo area is an athletic conference made up of high schools that are within the cities of Toledo and Oregon. The league sponsors the sports of: football, volleyball, cross country, boys & girls basketball, wrestling, swimming, bowling, baseball, softball, golf, and boys & girls track & field.

1 Current Members
2 Former Members
3 History
4 External links
5 See also

[edit] Current Members

Toledo Bowsher Rebels
Toledo Central Catholic Fighting Irish (parochial)
Oregon Clay Eagles
Toledo Libbey Cowboys/Cowgirls
Toledo Notre Dame Eagles (girls parochial)
Toledo Rogers Rams
Toledo St. Francis de Sales Knights (boys parochial)
Toledo St. John's Jesuit Titans (boys parochial)
Toledo St. Ursula Arrows (girls parochial)
Toledo Scott Bulldogs
Toledo Start Spartans
Toledo Waite Indians
Toledo Whitmer Panthers
Toledo Woodward Polar Bears

[edit] Former Members

Oregon Cardinal Stritch (parochial, members from 1970-1992)
Toledo DeVilbiss Tigers (closed in 1991)
Toledo Macomber-Whitney Macmen/Lady Macmen (joint-vocational schools, closed in 1991)
Toledo McAuley Lions (girls parochial, closed c. 1987)

[edit] History

The league was formed in the fall of 1926 with charter members Libbey, Scott, Waite, and Woodward. Later additions were Bowsher (1963), Cardinal Stritch (c. 1970), Central Catholic, DeVilbiss (1931), Macomber (c. 1938), Rogers (1966), St. Francis DeSales (c. 1955), St. John's Jesuit (1966), and Start (1963).

In 1966 the City League expanded to include 12 teams, and in the early 70s, two 6-team divisions were created for football. The divisional winners would meet annually in the Shoe Bowl for the city championship at the University of Toledo's Glass Bowl until the end of the 1991 school year. Due to financial problems and declining enrollment, DeVilbiss and Macomber-Whitney were regrettably closed by the Toledo Public School District after the 1990-91 school year. Afterwards, the divisions and the Shoe Bowl were eliminated, with the league championship being replaced with the "Hall of Fame Game." More financial problems caused the parochial schools to play an independent schedule for the 1991 football season, as the remaining public schools played for the league title. The parochial schools would return to league play for the 1992 football season, but Cardinal Stritch had withdrawn its membership after the 1991-92 school year since their enrollment numbers were substantially smaller than the other schools. For the 2003-04 school year, Clay and Whitmer joined, leaving the crumbling Great Lakes League, which had folded at the end of the 2003 school year. There were talks of using the division format again, but the league has continued to play in all sports without them.

The league was the first major conference in Ohio to sponsor girls' sports, hosting a championship track meet in 1970 (five years prior to the first OHSAA state track championship). The 1972 City League championship meet was the first-ever coed track meet in Ohio.

Old Divisions for City League Football
Red Division	Blue Division
Central Catholic	Bowser
DeVilbiss	Libbey
Macomber	Rogers
Scott	St. Francis
Start	St. John's
Woodward	Waite
	Cardinal Stritch*

Cardinal Stritch joined the league after the divisions had been set.

In the summer of 2006, it was announced that the Shoe Bowl would return on August 18, 2006 not as the championship game, but as the round-robin exhibition tournament that it was originally created for from the 1930s to the mid 60s. Toledo St. John's, Toledo Scott, Toledo Start, Toledo Woodward, Temperance Bedford (MI), Metamora Evergreen, and Oregon Cardinal Stritch scrimmaged against each other in the pre-season action at the Glass Bowl.