The Bi-County League is a former high school athletic conference with its membership base in west central Wisconsin. The conference was active from 1928 to 1959, and all of its member schools belonged to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
History 1928–1955
The Bi-County League was formed in 1928 by eight small high schools near the Mississippi River in west central Wisconsin: Alma, Arkansaw, Cochrane, Durand, Fountain City, Gilmanton, Mondovi and Nelson. All original members were located in two counties (Buffalo and Pepin), which is where the name originated from. Five years after it was founded, the conference lost three members to the new Mississippi Valley Conference (Alma, Durand and Mondovi), along with a fourth becoming an independent in Fountain City. Pepin replaced the four departing schools, bringing the membership tally to five. Alma and Fountain City rejoined the Bi-County League in 1934 to bring membership back up to seven schools. Plum City joined the Bi-County League in 1935, replacing Cochrane after their exit. They would rejoin the next year, bringing the conference back up to eight members. It would stay at this number for most of the next two decades, save for a season when Maiden Rock was the Bi-County League's ninth school.
1955–1959 The Bi-County League’s membership was whittled away by rural school district consolidation in the 1950s, starting with Nelson’s closing and redistricting to Durand in 1955. Two years later, Plum City left for membership in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference, and after the merger of Cochrane and Fountain City in 1958, the conference was left with only five members. The Bi-County League was dissolved in 1959, with four schools (Alma, Arkansaw, Gilmanton and Pepin) forming half of the new West Central Conference and Cochrane-Fountain City becoming members of the Mississippi Valley Conference.
Conference membership history Final members SchoolLocationAffiliationMascotColorsJoinedLeftConference JoinedCurrent ConferenceAlmaAlma, WIPublicRivermen 1928, 19341933, 1959Mississippi Valley, West CentralDairyland (coop with Pepin)ArkansawArkansaw, WIPublicTravelers 19281959West CentralClosed in 1992 (consolidated into Durand)Cochrane-Fountain CityFountain City, WIPublicPirates 19581959Mississippi ValleyDairylandGilmantonGilmanton, WIPublicPanthers 19281959West CentralDairyland (coop with Independence)PepinPepin, WIPublicLakers 19331959West CentralDairyland (coop with Alma)
Previous members SchoolLocationAffiliationMascotColorsJoinedLeftConference JoinedCurrent ConferenceCochraneCochrane, WIPublicIndians 1928, 19361935, 1958Closed (merged into Cochrane-Fountain City)DurandDurand, WIPublicPanthers 19281933Mississippi ValleyDunn-St. CroixFountain CityFountain City, WIPublicEagles 1928, 19341933, 1958Closed (merged into Cochrane-Fountain City)Maiden RockMaiden Rock, WIPublicRockets 19501951IndependentClosed in 1956 (consolidated into Ellsworth)MondoviMondovi, WIPublicBuffaloes 19281933Mississippi ValleyDunn-St. CroixNelsonNelson, WIPublicVikings 19281955Closed (consolidated into Durand)Plum CityPlum City, WIPublicBlue Devils 19351957Dunn-St. CroixDunn-St. Croix (coop with Elmwood)
Membership timeline
List of conference champions
Boys Basketball SchoolQuantityYears Alma81936, 1937, 1938, 1944, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1959Cochrane71935, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958Fountain City31939, 1951, 1952Mondovi31931, 1932, 1933Durand21929, 1930Gilmanton21934, 1945Nelson11947Pepin11946Plum City11941Arkansaw0Cochrane-Fountain City0Maiden Rock0Champions from 1940, 1942-1943 unknown
References