The Suburban Six-Man Football League is a former high school
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
conference
A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...
with its catchment in the
Madison metropolitan area
The Madison metropolitan area, also known as Greater Madison, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Madison, Wisconsin. The Madison, WI Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), as defined by the Office of Management and Budget, consists of ...
. Originating in 1939 and playing its last season in 1957, the conference's member schools were affiliated with 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
1939-1942
The Suburban Six-Man Football League was formed in 1939 as the Dane-Columbia Six-Man Football League by three small high schools in south central Wisconsin.
All three schools played
six-man football
Six-man football is a variant of gridiron football played with six players per team, instead of the standard eleven. It is generally played by high schools in rural areas of the United States and Canada.
History
Six-man football was developed in ...
and belonged to conferences which either did not sponsor the sport (
Cambria
Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity) or the early medieval period. After the ...
and
Poynette of the
Dual County Conference
The Dual County Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, inaugurated in 1926 as the Columbia County Little Six Conference and ending competition in 2001. All conference members were affiliated with the Wisconsin Inters ...
) or sponsored
eleven-man football (
Deerfield of the
Madison Suburban Conference
The Madison Suburban Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, founded in 1926 and ending competition in 1969. Its members were located in south central Wisconsin, predominantly around the Madison, Wisconsin, Madison ar ...
). Deerfield left for the 1940 football season to compete as an independent, with
DeForest and
Fox Lake taking their place in the newly renamed South Central Four.
It wasn't until the 1941 football season that the conference would adopt the Suburban Six-Man Football League moniker. That season, membership increased from four to ten schools. Along with Deerfield's reentry into the conference, the Suburban Six-Man Football League accepted three members associated with the
Tri-County League (
Black Earth,
Mazomanie and
Waunakee), two from the
State Line League
The State Line League is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin. Formed in 1927 and ending competition in 1997, its membership consisted of small schools located in the southernmost counties of the state along the Wisconsin-Illinois ...
(
Belleville and
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
) and
Verona
Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...
of the
Madison Suburban Conference
The Madison Suburban Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, founded in 1926 and ending competition in 1969. Its members were located in south central Wisconsin, predominantly around the Madison, Wisconsin, Madison ar ...
.
Brooklyn left the conference in 1942
when they dropped football from their interscholastic athletic offerings, which along with Poynette's exit reduced membership to eight schools.
Competition in the Suburban Six-Man Football League was suspended for the 1943 season amid
gasoline rationing for the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
effort.
1944-1950
The Suburban Six-Man Football League resumed play for the 1944 season,
welcoming back all eight members from the 1942 season, along with Poynette (who last played in the conference in 1941) and newcomers
Argyle, whose primary affiliation was with the State Line League. The league partitioned into Eastern and Western sections with the increase in membership:
This configuration was maintained for three seasons (1944-1946) before new conferences began to adopt six-man football and changed the league's makeup. Argyle and Belleville left to join the State Line League,
and Cambria became Dual County Conference members for six-man football.
and
Marshall
Marshall may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria
** Marshall railway station
Canada
* Marshall, Saskatchewan
* The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia
Liberia
* Marshall, Liberia
Marshall Is ...
took the place of the departing schools after competing as independents the year prior.
For the 1948 season, Marshall declined to offer six-man football and Poynette left to become full members in the Dual County Conference.
The 1949 season saw a significant turnover of member schools as four schools adopted eleven-man football and most joined their respective conferences. Mazomanie and Waunakee entered football competition in the Tri-County League, DeForest became football members of the Madison Suburban Conference and Verona competed as an independent for one season before joining the Madison Suburban Conference a year later.
Marshall reinstated their six-man football team to bring membership to four schools for the 1949 season.
1950-1957
As member schools continued to adopt eleven-man football when they grew in enrollment size, the Suburban Six-Man Football League continued to see membership turnover for the remainder of their history. A fifth member joined the conference for the 1950 season (
Hustisford),
but membership decreased back to four schools for the 1951 season when Johnson Creek transitioned to eleven-man football and joined the Madison Suburban Conference.
in
Mukwonago
Mukwonago is a village in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 8,262 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The village is located mostly within the Mukwonago (town), Wisconsin, Town of Mukwonago in Waukesha County, Wisconsin ...
joined the league for the 1953 season, bringing the roster to five schools.
The conference would compete in six-man football for one more season before moving to
eight-man football
Eight-man football is a form of gridiron football, generally played by high schools with smaller enrollments. Eight-man football differs from the traditional 11-man game with the reduction of three players on each side of the ball and a field wid ...
in 1954, along with a name change to the Suburban Eight-Man Football League. Black Earth and Hustisford left the league after the 1954 football season, whittling the group to only three members.
The Suburban Eight-Man Football League played for three more seasons after being disbanded following the 1957 football season. Deerfield and Marshall played in the Southern Regional Conference's final eight-man football season in 1958, and both schools went on to form the
Southern Dairyland Conference
The Southern Dairyland Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated in south central Wisconsin. Football was the only sport sponsored by this conference, which was founded in 1959 and disbanded after the 1962 foo ...
with Johnson Creek and Palmyra for the 1959 season.
Norris Foundation would become members of the Southern Dairyland in 1960 after playing the 1959 season as an independent.
Conference membership history
Membership timeline
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1939 till:1958
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:60 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
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id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
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width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:lavender from:1939 till:1943 text:Cambria (1939-1942)
bar:1 color:green from:1944 till:1947 text:(1944-1946)
bar:2 color:lavender from:1939 till:1940 text:Deerfield (1939, 1941-1942)
bar:2 color:lavender from:1941 till:1943 text:
bar:2 color:green from:1944 till:1947 text:(1944-1957)
bar:2 color:lavender from:1947 till:1958 text:
bar:3 color:lavender from:1939 till:1942 text:Poynette (1939-1941)
bar:3 color:green from:1944 till:1947 text:(1944-1947)
bar:3 color:lavender from:1947 till:1948 text:
bar:4 color:lavender from:1940 till:1943 text:DeForest (1940-1942)
bar:4 color:green from:1944 till:1947 text:
bar:4 color:lavender from:1947 till:1949 text:
bar:5 color:lavender from:1940 till:1941 text:Fox Lake (1940)
bar:6 color:lavender from:1941 till:1943 text:Belleville (1941-1942)
bar:6 color:yellowgreen from:1944 till:1947 text:(1944-1946)
bar:7 color:lavender from:1941 till:1942 text:Brooklyn (1941)
bar:8 color:lavender from:1941 till:1943 text:Black Earth (1941-1942, 1944-1954)
bar:8 color:yellowgreen from:1944 till:1947 text:
bar:8 color:lavender from:1947 till:1955 text:
bar:9 color:lavender from:1941 till:1943 text:Mazomanie (1941-1942, 1944-1948)
bar:9 color:yellowgreen from:1944 till:1947 text:
bar:9 color:lavender from:1947 till:1949 text:
bar:10 color:lavender from:1941 till:1943 text:Verona (1941-1942)
bar:10 color:yellowgreen from:1944 till:1947 text:(1944-1948)
bar:10 color:lavender from:1947 till:1949 text:
bar:11 color:lavender from:1941 till:1943 text:Waunakee (1941-1942, 1944-1948)
bar:11 color:green from:1944 till:1947 text:
bar:11 color:lavender from:1947 till:1949 text:
bar:12 color:yellowgreen from:1944 till:1947 text:Argyle (1944-1946)
bar:13 color:lavender from:1947 till:1951 text:Johnson Creek (1947-1950)
bar:14 color:lavender from:1947 till:1948 text:Marshall (1947, 1949-1957)
bar:14 color:lavender from:1949 till:1958 text:
bar:15 color:lavender from:1950 till:1955 text:Hustisford (1950-1954)
bar:16 color:lavender from:1953 till:1958 text:Norris Foundation (1953-1957)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1939
List of conference champions
References
{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences
Wisconsin high school sports conferences
Sports organizations established in 1939
1939 establishments in Wisconsin
1957 disestablishments in Wisconsin