The Soo Line League is a former high school athletic conference with members located in north central Wisconsin. Founded in 1931 as the Little Seven, it existed from 1931 to 1943 and its members belonged to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
History
The Soo Line League was formed in 1931 as the Little Seven Conference by seven small high schools in a five-county area (Chippewa, Lincoln, Price, Rusk and Taylor) of north central Wisconsin: Gilman, Hawkins, Lake Holcombe, Prentice, Tony, Tripoli and Westboro. Weyerhaeuser joined the conference in 1932, by which time it was referred to as the Little Eight by the local media. In 1933, the Little Eight lost two members to the Cloverbelt Conference (Gilman and Lake Holcombe) and one to the 3-C Conference (Westboro). It was around this time that the conference began to refer to itself as the Soo Line League, presumably due to the heavy presence of the Soo Line Railroad in the region. By the second half of the decade, the Soo Line League had whittled down to three schools following the exit of Weyerhaeuser to the Lakeland Conference in 1934 and Prentice to the 3-C Conference in 1935. Aside from Phillips's one-season stint in the league for the 1936-37 school year, the Soo Line League maintained a three-school membership roster of Hawkins, Tony and Tripoli. By 1940, the conference, which was now referred to as the T-Conference in most media outlets and yearbooks, had accepted Ingram-Glen Flora as members. The addition of Hannibal the following year brought membership to five schools, which is where it would remain for the last two seasons of competition. The T-Conference suspended operations in 1943 due to the gasoline rationing imposed to support American operations in World War II. Three years, later, six former Soo Line League members (Hannibal, Hawkins, Ingram-Glen Flora, Lake Holcombe, Tony and Weyerhaeuser) formed the Flambeauland Conference to resume interscholastic league competition in the region.
Conference membership history
Final members SchoolLocationAffiliationMascotColorsJoinedLeftConference JoinedCurrent ConferenceHannibalHannibal, WIPublicUnknown 19411943IndependentClosed in 1956 (consolidated into Gilman)HawkinsHawkins, WIPublicHawkeyes 19311943IndependentClosed in 1967 (consolidated into Ladysmith)Ingram-Glen FloraGlen Flora, WIPublicBluejays 19401943IndependentClosed in 1961 (merged into Flambeau High School)TonyTony, WIPublicTornadoes 19311943IndependentClosed in 1961 (merged into Flambeau High School)TripoliTripoli, WIPublicTornadoes 19311943IndependentClosed in 1969 (portions merged into Prentice and Tomahawk)
Former members SchoolLocationAffiliationMascotColorsJoinedLeftConference JoinedCurrent ConferenceGilmanGilman, WIPublicPirates 19311933CloverbeltLake HolcombeLake Holcombe, WIPublicChieftains 19311933CloverbeltLakelandPhillipsPhillips, WIPublicLoggers 19361937Upper WisconsinMarawoodPrenticePrentice, WIPublicBuccaneers 193119353-CMarawoodWestboroWestboro, WIPublicTrojans 193119333-CClosed in 1967 (merged into Rib Lake)WeyerhaeuserWeyerhaeuser, WIPublicWildcats 19321934LakelandClosed in 2010 (merged into Chetek-Weyerhaeuser)
Membership timeline
References