Things had gone downhill for both Messmer and Shorewood in the 1970’s and 80’s and it carried forward. Messmer was a fixture on the Milwaukee northside as the city was seeing many changes. White flight to the suburbs was going on, the African American population was moving into the area to replace those who left. The strong German, Polish and Italian Catholic base was moving out. The first African Americans admitted to Messmer were in the early 1950’s and they were general

While Messmer was having a bit of success, Shorewood High School had some better outcomes during the same period. Shorewood high school opened in 1915. Prior to that the high school students attended Milwaukee East (Now Riverside) but they had to pay tuition. The football teams first major success was in 1927 when they won the Suburban Conference title going 7-0-0. 1936 rolled along and they again were champions, going 6-1-0. Two seasons later (1938) they had sunk to a 0-7-0

Two schools in cities right next to each other on the north side of Milwaukee County, less than two miles apart and both on the same street, Capitol Drive. Divided by the Milwaukee River, today the two cities are a diverse mix of economics. Shorewood is in fact a 15,000+ person village. It is a city, population size, but because if the size of land (Only composed of 1.59 square miles) the people who inhabit the area considered Shorewood to be a village. The area around Mes