History
Originally named the Little Six Conference, the loop was formed in 1949 by six small high schools: five in Michigan's upper peninsula (Alpha, Channing, Felch, Hermansville and Vulcan) and one just across the Brule River in northern Wisconsin (Florence). [1] Powers-Spalding joined the conference from the Central UP League in 1951, [2] bringing membership to seven schools and giving the circuit its longest-running moniker of the Big Seven Conference. Membership remained stable over the next decade before the conference expanded to eight schools in 1961 with the addition of Carney. [3] With the additional member came a change in name to the Big Eight Conference, and when a ninth member school was added in 1963 (Pembine in Wisconsin), another name change to the Big Nine Conference accompanied their entry. [4] Like the previous name changes, this one was short-lived, and the Big Nine Conference lost Florence to the WIAA-affiliated Northern Lakes Conference and Vulcan to consolidation with Norway. [5] The conference's name was changed to the Big Seven Conference with the loss of two members. [6] Alpha left the conference when it closed in 1967 after merging with Crystal Falls to create the Forest Park district. [7] The conference, now called the Big Six Conference due to Alpha's closing, [8] played for one more season before disbanding in 1968. The six remaining schools joined with three members of the shuttered Mid-Peninsula Conference (Champion, National Mine and Republic) to form the new Skyline Conference. [9] [10] By 1971, all of the former conference's Michigan-based members were lost to rural school district consolidation.
