The Little Nine Conference is a former high school

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Operational from 1928 to 1970, its membership was concentrated in east central Wisconsin and all member schools belonged to the

Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) is the regulatory body for all high school sports in Wisconsin. Its history dates to 1895, making it the earliest continually existing high school athletic organization in the country. ...

History

1928-1950

The Little Nine Conference was founded in 1928 by a group of nine small high schools in the Fox River Valley: Bear Creek, Brillion,

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, Hortonville, Kimberly, Little Chute (not related to the current high school), Pulaski,

Seymour Seymour may refer to: Places Australia *Seymour, Victoria, a township ** Seymour railway station * Electoral district of Seymour, a former electoral district in Victoria * Rural City of Seymour, a former local government area in Victoria * Se ...

and Wrightstown.

Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician and philosophy of mathematics, philosopher of mathematics and one of the most influential mathematicians of his time. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad ...

joined the following year to put membership at ten schools. In 1930, Reedsville joined the Little Nine Conference, replacing the original Little Chute High School, which closed and redistricted to

Appleton Appleton may refer to: People and fictional characters * Appleton (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters * Appleton family, an American political, religious and mercantile family * Appleton P. Clark Jr. (1865–1955), Am ...

and Kaukauna. The Little Nine also split into Eastern and Western Divisions that year: In 1931, conference membership increased to twelve schools as

Freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

and

Shiocton Shiocton is a village in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 939 at the 2020 census. It is wholly surrounded by the Town of Bovina. History In the Menominee language, this place is known as ''Māēnomehsāyak'', ...

joined the Little Nine. Stockbridge was also invited to join the Little Nine that year but declined the invite. Freedom was placed in the Eastern Division while Shiocton was placed in the Western Division: Pulaski left the conference in 1933 to compete independent of conference affiliation, and two schools swapped divisions with Freedom moving to the Western Division and Kimberly to the Eastern Division. Two years later, Winneconne joined the Little Nine Conference from the Little 6-C Conference to bring membership back up to twelve schools. They took up residence in the Western Division to give the conference two six-team divisions: Seymour and Wrightstown swapped division affiliation in 1937, and the conference would maintain this alignment for twelve years. Football was added as a sponsored sport in 1947 with five schools (Brillion, Denmark, Shiocton Winneconne and Wrightstown) participating. In 1950, Kimberly and Seymour left to join the

Northeastern Wisconsin Conference The Northeastern Wisconsin Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, opening competition in 1927 and disbanding in 1970. Its members were concentrated in the northeastern part of the state, and all members were affiliat ...

, leaving membership at ten schools. Divisions were also abolished that year, and the Little Nine competed as a single entity for the rest of its history.

1950-1970

The Little Nine Conference remained a fairly stable loop in terms of membership with few changes occurring during the last two decades of the conference's run. Brillion left in 1951 to join the

Eastern Wisconsin Conference The Eastern Wisconsin Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership based in east central Wisconsin. It existed in two incarnations: the original conference from 1923 to 1970 and the current one since 1979. The conference an ...

, they were not replaced until 1956 when Omro joined the Little Nine from the Big 7-C Conference. Brillion would return in 1965 to replace Bear Creek after they left the conference to compete in the Wolf River Valley Conference for the remainder of their history. The Little Nine Conference continued as a ten-member circuit before disbanding in 1970. Six schools moved on to the new Olympian Conference (Brillion, Denmark, Freedom, Hilbert, Reedsville and Wrightstown), three joined the new

East Central Conference The East Central Conference is a high school athletic conference in Wisconsin. Originally founded in 1970, it was disbanded in 2001 and remained defunct until its reconstitution in 2015. It will be dissolved again after 2024-25 school year, and al ...

(Hortonville, Omro and Winneconne), and Shiocton was accepted into the

Central Wisconsin Conference The Central Wisconsin Conference is a high school athletic conference comprising twenty-one high schools in three divisions in central Wisconsin. Founded in 1926, the conference and its member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interschola ...

Conference membership history

Membership timeline

Full members

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1928 till:1970 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1930 text:Bear Creek (1928-1965) bar:1 color:skyblue from:1930 till:1950 text: bar:1 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1965 text: bar:2 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1930 text:Brillion (1928-1951) bar:2 color:blue from:1930 till:1950 text: bar:2 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1951 text: bar:2 color:tan1 from:1965 till:1970 text:(1965-1970) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1930 text:Denmark (1928-1970) bar:3 color:blue from:1930 till:1950 text: bar:3 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1970 text: bar:4 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1930 text:Hortonville (1928-1970) bar:4 color:skyblue from:1930 till:1950 text: bar:4 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1970 text: bar:5 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1930 text:Kimberly (1928-1950) bar:5 color:skyblue from:1930 till:1933 text: bar:5 color:blue from:1933 till:1950 text: bar:6 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1930 text:Little Chute (1928-1930) bar:7 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1930 text:Pulaski (1928-1933) bar:7 color:skyblue from:1930 till:1933 text: bar:8 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1930 text:Seymour (1928-1950) bar:8 color:skyblue from:1930 till:1937 text: bar:8 color:blue from:1937 till:1950 text: bar:9 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1930 text:Wrightstown (1928-1970) bar:9 color:blue from:1930 till:1937 text: bar:9 color:skyblue from:1937 till:1950 text: bar:9 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1970 text: bar:10 color:tan1 from:1929 till:1930 text:Hilbert (1929-1970) bar:10 color:blue from:1930 till:1950 text: bar:10 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1970 text: bar:11 color:skyblue from:1930 till:1950 text:Reedsville (1930-1970) bar:11 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1970 text: bar:12 color:blue from:1931 till:1933 text:Freedom (1931-1970) bar:12 color:skyblue from:1933 till:1950 text: bar:12 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1970 text: bar:13 color:skyblue from:1931 till:1950 text:Shiocton (1931-1970) bar:13 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1970 text: bar:14 color:skyblue from:1935 till:1950 text:Winneconne (1935-1970) bar:14 color:tan1 from:1950 till:1970 text: bar:15 color:tan1 from:1956 till:1970 text:Omro (1956-1970) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1928

Football members

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1947 till:1970 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:lavender from:1947 till:1951 text:Brillion (1947-1950) bar:1 color:lavender from:1965 till:1970 text:(1965-1969) bar:2 color:lavender from:1947 till:1970 text:Denmark (1947-1969) bar:3 color:lavender from:1947 till:1970 text:Shiocton (1947-1969) bar:4 color:lavender from:1947 till:1970 text:Winneconne (1947-1969) bar:5 color:lavender from:1947 till:1970 text:Wrightstown (1947-1969) bar:6 color:lavender from:1949 till:1970 text:Freedom (1949-1969) bar:7 color:lavender from:1950 till:1970 text:Hortonville (1950-1969) bar:8 color:lavender from:1952 till:1970 text:Reedsville (1952-1969) bar:9 color:lavender from:1956 till:1970 text:Omro (1956-1969) bar:10 color:lavender from:1962 till:1970 text:Hilbert (1962-1969) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1947

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Football

References

{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Wisconsin high school sports conferences Sports organizations established in 1928 1928 establishments in Wisconsin 1970 disestablishments in Wisconsin