The Gateway-West Central Conference is an affiliated pair of former high school athletic conferences with their membership concentrated in west central Wisconsin. Competing from 1941 to 1952, all member schools belonged to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
History
The Gateway-West Central Conference was founded in 1941, resulting from a split of the nine-member South Central Conference. Logan High School in La Crosse was not only the largest high school in the conference, it was the most dominant with perennial contenders in multiple sports. Coupled with being a geographic outlier in west central Wisconsin, the smaller schools to the east (Baraboo, Portage, Reedsburg, Richland Center and Wisconsin Dells) voted to remove Logan from the conference in 1941. The three closest schools geographically to Logan (Sparta, Tomah and Viroqua) voted with Logan to keep them in the conference, but were outnumbered by a 5-4 margin and formed the Gateway Conference. Another conference under the same organizational structure was formed by three members of the Gateway (Sparta, Tomah and Viroqua), along with Mauston of the Juneau County League and Westby of the Monroe-Vernon Conference which was called the West Central Conference.
The two conferences were affiliated but competed for two different championships, and all games played between the three dual members counted in the standings for both leagues. This arrangement lasted until 1947, when the Gateway Conference was dissolved and three of its members (Logan, Sparta and Tomah) joined with Chippewa Falls to form the North Central Conference under the same organizational structure. Westby also left the West Central Conference as football members to join the new Scenic Central Conference that year. Two years later, this alignment was scrapped in favor of a return to the original Gateway Conference lineup for the 1949-50 school year. The Gateway and West Central Conferences continued competition for three more years before both were disbanded in 1952.
Conference membership history Gateway/North Central Conference SchoolLocationAffiliationNicknameColorsJoinedLeftConference JoinedCurrent ConferenceLa Crosse LoganLa Crosse, WIPublicRangers 19411952 IndependentMississippi ValleySpartaSparta, WIPublicSpartans 19411952 South CentralMississippi ValleyTomahTomah, WIPublicIndians 19411952 South CentralMississippi ValleyViroquaViroqua, WIPublicBlackhawks 1941, 19491947, 1952South CentralCouleeChippewa FallsChippewa Falls, WIPublicCardinals 19471949IndependentBig Rivers
West Central Conference
SchoolLocationAffiliationNicknameColorsJoinedLeftConference JoinedCurrent ConferenceMaustonMauston, WIPublicGolden Eagles 19411952 South CentralSpartaSparta, WIPublicSpartans 19411952 South CentralMississippi ValleyTomahTomah, WIPublicIndians 19411952 South CentralMississippi ValleyViroquaViroqua, WIPublicBlackhawks 19411952 South CentralCouleeWestbyWestby, WIPublicNorsemen 19411952 Juneau CountyCoulee
Membership timeline Gateway/North Central Conference
Full members
Football members
West Central Conference
Full members
Football members
List of conference champions
Gateway/North Central Conference
Boys Basketball SchoolQuantityYears La Crosse Logan81942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 Tomah61945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952Chippewa Falls0 Sparta0 Viroqua0
Football SchoolQuantityYears La Crosse Logan31948, 1949, 1951 Sparta11948 Tomah11950Chippewa Falls0 Viroqua0
West Central Conference
Boys Basketball SchoolQuantityYears Tomah81943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952 Sparta21942, 1948 Viroqua21949, 1950Mauston0Westby0
Football SchoolQuantityYears Tomah81943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951 Sparta31942, 1947, 1948Mauston11947 Viroqua11942Westby
References