Michigan-Wisconsin Conference

The Michigan-Wisconsin Conference is a former high school athletic conference with members in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Operational from 1937 to 1973, its public school members were part of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

History

1937–1960

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Location of Original Michigan-Wisconsin Conference Members

The Michigan-Wisconsin Conference was formed in 1937 by five high schools near the border between the two states. Three members were located in Michigan's upper peninsula (Bessemer, Ironwood and Wakefield) and two were based in Wisconsin (Ashland and Hurley).^[1] All of the original member schools in the Michigan-Wisconsin Conference were located along the U.S. Route 2 corridor near the south shore of Lake Superior. Two new schools were added in 1950 when Calumet of Michigan and Park Falls of Wisconsin became members of the conference.^[2] Both schools already had commitments in other conferences to fulfill, and Park Falls didn't join for all of their sponsored sports until 1952.^[3] Calument joined as a football-only member alongside Park Falls,^[4] but they elected to remain members of Michigan's Copper Country Conference for all other sports.^[5][6] Park Falls only stayed for five years as a full member before they left in 1955 to join the Lumberjack Conference.^[7]

1960–1973

In 1960, the newly formed Northwestern High School in Maple brought membership in the Michigan-Wisconsin Conference back up to six schools.^[8] Superior East became the conference's seventh school in 1961,^[9] but closed in 1965 after merging with Superior Central to form the new Superior High School.^[10] They were immediately replaced by Cathedral High School,^[11] the only private school ever to play in the conference and a member of the Wisconsin Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association. Just like their predecessor, they spent four years as conference members before closing their doors in 1969.^[12] The Michigan-Wisconsin Conference lasted for four more years before disbanding in 1973. Ashland and Hurley joined Wisconsin's Lumberjack Conference,^[13] and two Michigan schools (Bessemer and Wakefield) became charter members of the Western Upper Peninsula Athletic Conference.^[14] Northwestern spent a year as an independent before they became members of the Heart O'North Conference in Wisconsin,^[15] and Ironwood entered the Great Northern UP Conference in Michigan.^[16]

Conference membership history

Final members

School	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Joined	Left	Conference Joined	Current Conference
Ashland	Ashland, WI	Public	635[17]	Oredockers		1937[1]	1973[13]	Lumberjack	Heart O'North
Bessemer	Bessemer, MI	Public	109[18]	Speedboys		1937[1]	1973[14]	Western UP (MHSAA)	Independent
Hurley	Hurley, WI	Public	192[17]	Midgets		1937[1]	1973[13]	Lumberjack	Northern Lights
Ironwood	Ironwood, MI	Public	219[18]	Red Devils		1937[1]	1973[16]	Great Northern UP (MHSAA)	Independent
Northwestern	Maple, WI	Public	400[17]	Tigers		1960[8]	1973[15]	Independent	Heart O'North
Wakefield	Wakefield, MI	Public	88[18]	Cardinals		1937[1]	1973[14]	Western UP (MHSAA)	Independent

Previous members

School	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Joined	Left	Conference Joined	Current Conference
Cathedral	Superior, WI	Private (Catholic)	N/A	Panthers		1965[11]	1969[12]	Closed
Park Falls	Park Falls, WI	Public	N/A	Cardinals		1950[2]	1955[7]	Lumberjack	Closed in 2009 (merged into Chequamegon)
Superior East	Superior, WI	Public	N/A	Orientals		1961[9]	1965[10]	Closed (merged into Superior)

Football-only members

School	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Seasons	Primary Conference
Calumet	Calumet, MI	Public	365[18]	Copper Kings		1952-1953[4][5][6]	Copper Country

Membership timeline

Full members

Football members

List of state champions

Boys Basketball

School	Year	Organization	Class
Bessemer	1947[19]	MHSAA	Class B (Upper Peninsula)
Hurley	1949[20]	WIAA	Open Classification

Skiing

School	Year	Organization	Class
Hurley	1964[21]	WIAA	Open Classification

Boys Tennis

School	Year	Organization	Class
Wakefield	1945[22]	MHSAA	Open (Upper Peninsula)
Ironwood	1946[22]	MHSAA	Class B (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1946[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Ironwood	1947[22]	MHSAA	Class B (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1947[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1948[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1949[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1950[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1951[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1953[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1957[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1963[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1964[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1965[22]	MHSAA	Class C-D (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1969[22]	MHSAA	Open (Upper Peninsula)

Boys Track & Field

School	Year	Organization	Classification
Ironwood	1940[23]	MHSAA	Class B (Upper Peninsula)
Ironwood	1946[23]	MHSAA	Class B (Upper Peninsula)
Ironwood	1948[23]	MHSAA	Class B (Upper Peninsula)
Ironwood	1950[23]	MHSAA	Class B (Upper Peninsula)
Bessemer	1951[23]	MHSAA	Class C (Upper Peninsula)
Ironwood	1951[23]	MHSAA	Class B (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1952[23]	MHSAA	Class C (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1959[23]	MHSAA	Class C (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1960[23]	MHSAA	Class C (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1961[23]	MHSAA	Class C (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1962[23]	MHSAA	Class C (Upper Peninsula)
Wakefield	1964[23]	MHSAA	Class C (Upper Peninsula)

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

School	Quantity	Years
Ironwood	13	1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1946, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1966, 1971
Hurley	12	1943, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1973
Bessemer	7	1938, 1942, 1948, 1956, 1970, 1972, 1973
Wakefield	6	1958, 1959, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1970
Ashland	4	1945, 1946, 1950, 1968
Superior Cathedral	2	1966, 1969
Superior East	1	1965
Northwestern	0
Park Falls	0

Football

School	Quantity	Years
Ironwood	18	1937, 1938, 1939, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971
Bessemer	10	1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1944, 1947, 1956, 1957, 1961, 1967
Hurley	8	1942, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1954, 1968, 1970
Wakefield	5	1958, 1959, 1960, 1970, 1972
Ashland	4	1946, 1949, 1955, 1966
Superior Cathedral	1	1967
Superior East	1	1964
Calumet	0
Northwestern	0
Park Falls	0