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, Hortonville, Kimberly, Little Chute (not related to the current high school), Pulaski, Seymour and Wrightstown. [1] Hilbert joined the following year to put membership at ten schools. [2] In 1930, Reedsville joined the Little Nine Conference, replacing the original Little Chute High School, which closed and redistricted to Appleton and Kaukauna. [3] [4] The Little Nine also split into Eastern and Western Divisions that year: [5]
| Eastern Division | Western Division |
|---|---|
| Brillion | Bear Creek |
| Denmark | Hortonville |
| Hilbert | Kimberly |
| Reedsville | Pulaski |
| Wrightstown | Seymour |
In 1931, conference membership increased to twelve schools as Freedom and Shiocton joined the Little Nine. [6] Stockbridge was also invited to join the Little Nine that year [7] but declined the invite. Freedom was placed in the Eastern Division while Shiocton was placed in the Western Division: [8]
| Eastern Division | Western Division |
|---|---|
| Brillion | Bear Creek |
| Denmark | Hortonville |
| Freedom | Kimberly |
| Hilbert | Pulaski |
| Reedsville | Seymour |
| Wrightstown | Shiocton |
Pulaski left the conference in 1933 to compete independent of conference affiliation, [9] and two schools swapped divisions with Freedom moving to the Western Division and Kimberly to the Eastern Division. [10] 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: [11]
| Eastern Division | Western Division |
|---|---|
| Brillion | Bear Creek |
| Denmark | Freedom |
| Hilbert | Hortonville |
| Kimberly | Seymour |
| Reedsville | Shiocton |
| Wrightstown | Winneconne |
Seymour and Wrightstown swapped division affiliation in 1937, [12] 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. [13] In 1950, Kimberly and Seymour left to join the Northeastern Wisconsin Conference, leaving membership at ten schools. [14] Divisions were also abolished that year, and the Little Nine competed as a single entity for the rest of its history. [15]
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, [16] they were not replaced until 1956 when Omro joined the Little Nine from the Big 7-C Conference. [17] 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. [18] 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), [19] three joined the new East Central Conference (Hortonville, Omro and Winneconne), [20] and Shiocton was accepted into the Central Wisconsin Conference. [21]
