Notre Dame was formed in 1990 for the 1990-91 school year with the closure and mergers of Premontre, Penning and St. Joe's Academy. Premontre and Pennings were all-boys schools and St. Joe's was an all-girls school.

Pennings, as MUMac will quickly point out, won its final high school basketball game in 1990 when it beat Milwaukee Marquette for the WISAA state title. Northwestern's Kevin Rankin was a star on that Pennings squad.