The Flambeau League is a former high school

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...

with its membership concentrated in northwestern

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Founded in 1940 and disbanded in 1970, the conference and its member schools belonged to 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

The Flambeau League was formed in 1940 by six small high schools in northwestern Wisconsin: Butternut, Draper-Loretta, Fifield, Glidden,

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

and

Winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

. Original members were located in four counties ( Ashland,

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Price A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation expected, required, or given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, especially when the product is a service rather than a ph ...

and

Sawyer *A sawyer (occupation) is someone who saws wood. Places in the United States Communities * Sawyer, Kansas * Sawyer, Kentucky * Sawyer, Michigan * Sawyer, Minnesota * Sawyer, Nebraska * Sawyer, New York * Sawyer, North Dakota * Sawyer, Oklahoma ...

) and the conference was named after the

Flambeau River The Flambeau River is a tributary of the Chippewa River (Wisconsin), Chippewa River in northern Wisconsin, United States. The Chippewa is in turn a tributary of the upper Mississippi River. The Flambeau drains an area of and descends from an ...

, which ran through the conference's geographic area. Prentice joined the Flambeau League as its seventh member after leaving the 3-C Conference in 1943. Membership remained stable until 1952, when Draper-Loretta was consolidated with fellow conference member Winter. Hawkins moved over from the similarly named Flambeauland Conference to replace them, keeping the roster at seven schools. Three years later, the Flambeauland Conference disbanded, and former members Ingram-Glen Flora joined as the Flambeau League's eighth member in 1955. Their time in the league would be short-lived, as they were merged with

Tony Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony the Tiger, cartoon mascot for Frosted Flakes cereal * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * ...

in 1961 to form the new

Flambeau High School Flambeau may refer to: * A torch, burning torch, especially one carried in procession **Flambeau, a multi-flame torch traditionally carried in night parades during New Orleans Mardi Gras, Louisiana **Fiesta Flambeau parade, during Fiesta San Antonio ...

, with the new school inheriting Tony's Lakeland Conference membership. The next year, Fifield was consolidated into nearby

Park Falls Park Falls is a city in Price County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,410 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 2,462 at 2010 United States census, 2010. Located in the woods of north central Wisconsin, primarily ...

, and two schools displaced by the cessation of the 3-C Conference ( Rib Lake and

Westboro Westboro may refer to: Places Canada *Westboro, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood ** Westboro Station (OC Transpo), an OC Transpo Transitway Station United States * Westboro (Topeka), Kansas, a residential neighborhood * Westboro, Missouri * Westbo ...

) entered the Flambeau League as replacements, increasing membership back to eight schools. In the late 1960s, the Flambeau League continued to lose members to both rural school district consolidation and membership in other conferences. Hawkins and Westboro left the conference in 1967, with Hawkins' consolidation into Ladysmith and the folding of Westboro into Rib Lake. In 1968, Winter left to join the Lakeland Conference, decreasing the roster to five member schools. The conference lost another member in 1969 due to Tripoli's consolidation into Prentice's district. The four remaining schools competed for one more season before disbanding the Flambeau League in 1970. Butternut and Glidden joined the Indianhead Conference, Prentice became members of the Lakeland Conference and Rib Lake was accepted into the

Marawood Conference The Marawood Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated in north central Wisconsin. It was founded in 1949 and all member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. Hist ...

Conference membership history

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1940 till:1970 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:tan1 from:1940 till:1970 text:Butternut (1940-1970) bar:2 color:tan1 from:1940 till:1952 text:Draper-Loretta (1940-1952) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1940 till:1962 text:Fifield (1940-1962) bar:4 color:tan1 from:1940 till:1970 text:Glidden (1940-1970) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1940 till:1969 text:Tripoli (1940-1969) bar:6 color:tan1 from:1940 till:1968 text:Winter (1940-1968) bar:7 color:tan1 from:1943 till:1970 text:Prentice (1943-1970) bar:8 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1967 text:Hawkins (1952-1967) bar:9 color:tan1 from:1955 till:1961 text:Ingram-Glen Flora (1955-1961) bar:10 color:tan1 from:1962 till:1970 text:Rib Lake (1962-1970) bar:11 color:tan1 from:1962 till:1967 text:Westboro (1962-1967) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1940

References

{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Sports organizations established in 1940 Wisconsin high school sports conferences 1940 establishments in Wisconsin 1970 establishments in Wisconsin