History
1907-1953
The Kickapoo Valley League was formed in 1907 as an oratorical and track and field league by four small high schools in Crawford County and Vernon County in southwestern Wisconsin: La Farge, Seneca, Soldiers Grove and Viola. [1] The original members were all located along the Kickapoo River, a tributary of the Wisconsin River that the conference derives its name from. Membership experienced some minor changes in the early years, but the original group remained together for nearly a decade. Wauzeka joined in 1916 [2] and Gays Mills joined in 1923 to bring membership to six schools. [3] In 1931, West Lima joined the Kickapoo Valley League, replacing the exiting Seneca. [4] They would rejoin the league along with newcomers Readstown in 1934. [5] This eight member group would be in place when basketball was first sponsored by the Kickapoo Valley League in 1936 [6] and maintained stability into the early 1950s, when De Soto High School (who had opened the year before) [7] joined the conference in 1953 as its ninth member. [8]
1953-1971
The Kickapoo Valley League maintained a steady roster for the next decade, sponsoring eight-player football for the first time in 1963 with six participating members (Gays Mills, La Farge, Seneca, Soldiers Grove, Viola and Wauzeka). [9] [10] By the mid-1960s, conference membership began to change due to rural school district consolidation. The first of these changes occurred in 1964, when conference members Readstown, Viola and West Lima merged to form Kickapoo High School. [11] The new school played for one more year in the league before joining the Scenic Central Conference in 1965. Blue River and Ithaca joined the conference after being displaced by the dissolution of the I-W League 1964 to replace the schools that were lost. [12] In 1965, Gays Mills and Soldiers Grove combined to create the new North Crawford High School. They inherited the two predecessor schools' place in the league and were joined by two more schools left without conference affiliation after the I-W League's closing: Barneveld and Hollandale. [13] North Crawford's stay in the Kickapoo Valley League would be brief, as they and De Soto left in 1966 to join the Scenic Central Conference. [14] Blue River High School was lost to consolidation in 1967 when they joined with the Riverdale School District. [15] That same year, the Kickapoo Valley League transitioned to eleven-player football along with several other leagues in southern Wisconsin. [16] La Farge's exit from the Kickapoo Valley League to join the Scenic Central Conference in 1968 left the loop with just five schools. [17] The Kickapoo Valley League lost Hollandale to consolidation with Blanchardville in 1971, and the new Pecatonica High School inherited Blanchardville's State Line League membership. [18] The remaining four schools dissolved the conference that same year, with Barneveld joining the State Line League [19] and the other three schools (Ithaca, Seneca and Wauzeka) taking up residence in the Scenic Central Conference. [20]
