The Marinette & Oconto Conference was formed in 1927 by seven small high schools in Marinette and Oconto Counties in northeastern Wisconsin: Coleman, Crivitz, Lena, Marinette Normal, Our Lady of Lourdes, Peshtigo and Wausaukee.[1] In 1929, the M&O lost Marinette Normal and Our Lady of Lourdes, with Niagara joining to bring the conference to six members.[2] Peshtigo left the loop in 1931,[3] with Gillett moving over from the Northeastern Wisconsin Conference in 1932 to take their place.[4] The membership roster for the Marinette & Oconto Conference increased to nine in 1933 when Florence, Mountain and Suring entered the league.[5] Peshtigo would return to the M&O in 1934,[6] and Florence and Niagara left a year later, bringing the conference to eight schools.[7] In 1938, Mountain and Wausaukee exited the conference,[8] and along with Amberg and Pembine they formed the new Nicolet Conference.[9][10]Bonduel spent a short stint in the conference during World War II, joining in 1941[11] and leaving two years later.[12] After numerous changes in the conference's first two decades, the circuit entered a period of stability that would last until the 1950s.
Granite Valley Merger and Split (1951-1999)
In 1951, the four-member Granite Valley Conference merged with the six members of the Marinette & Oconto Conference: Amberg, Crivitz, Pembine and Wausaukee. Crivitz was previously a member of both conferences, and Wausaukee reentered the M&O after a thirteen-year absence.[13] With the addition of Goodman, the Marinette & Oconto Conference became a ten-member group, but this arrangement would end up being short-lived. In 1954, Amberg, Goodman, Pembine and Wausaukee split off to reform the Granite Valley Conference, leaving the conference with six member schools.[14] Wausaukee rejoined the Marinette & Oconto Conference for a third time in 1961 after displacement by the Granite Valley's dissolution in 1960.[15] In 1968, Niagara left the Menominee Range Conference in the upper peninsula of Michigan to rejoin as the M&O's eighth member.[16] The Marinette & Oconto Conference entered a three-decade period of stability after Niagara's return.
Present Day (1999-present)
In 1999, Marinette Central Catholic (formerly Our Lady of Lourdes) came back to the Marinette & Oconto Conference[17][18] after the dissolution of the Fox Valley Christian Conference, a result of the merger between the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association and the WIAA that was finalized in 2000.[19] The school became St. Thomas Aquinas Academy in 2005 after changing its enrollment model from high school to K-12.[20] The Oneida Nation High School joined the M&O in 2015, its first conference membership in their twenty-year history.[21] With Peshtigo's exit in 2017 to join the Packerland Conference,[22] the Marinette & Oconto Conference became the nine-member league that currently exists.
