Great Northern UP Conference explained

The Great Northern UP Conference, is an athletic conference for high schools in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was formed in 1965 as the Great Northern Conference and changed its name to the A-B-C Conference in 1984, and again to its current name in 1990. The football conference will be disbanded in 2023, but all other sports will continue.[1]

Member schools

Current members

TeamLocationColorsEnrollmentClassJoinedPrevious Conference
690 B 1965 Great Lakes Conference (Independent from 1986 to 1988)
428 B 2018 Mid-Peninsula Athletic Conference
548 B 1965 Menominee Range Conference
896 A 1973 Great Lakes Conference
391 C 1965 Independent

Former members

TeamLocationJoinedPrevious ConferenceDepartedSuccessive Conference
Escanaba Holy Name CrusadersEscanaba1965Independent1970N/A (football team abolished)
1965 Menominee Range Conference 1978 Mid-Peninsula Athletic Conference
Luther L. Wright Red DevilsIronwood1971Menominee Range Conference1987Independent
West Iron County WykonsIron River1968 None (School opened) 1988 (Independent from 1982 to 1986) Independent
Sault Ste. Marie Blue DevilsSault Ste. Marie2016 Independent 2017 Independent
Stephenson EaglesStephenson1965Great Lakes Conference1966Land-O-Lakes Conference

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyyImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20Period = from:1965 till:2026TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalPlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5

Colors = id:barcolor value:gray(0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white

PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:powderblue from:1965 till:1986 text: Escanaba Eskymos (1965-1986; 1988-present) bar:1 color:powderblue from:1987 till:end text: bar:2 color:powderblue from:1965 till:1970 text: Escanaba Holy Name Crusaders (1965-1970) bar:3 color:powderblue from:1974 till:2016 text: Gladstone Braves (1974-2016; 2018-present) bar:3 color:powderblue from:2018 till:end text: bar:4 color:powderblue from:1965 till:1977 text: Iron Mountain Mountaineers (1965-1977) bar:5 color:powderblue from:1971 till:1977 text: Ironwood Red Devils (1971-1977; 1986-1987) bar:5 color:powderblue from:1986 till:1987 text: bar:6 color:powderblue from:1965 till:end text: Kingsford Flivvers (1965-present) bar:7 color:powderblue from:1973 till:end text: Marquette Redmen (1973-present) bar:8 color:powderblue from:1965 till:end text: Menominee Maroons (1965-present) bar:9 color:powderblue from:2016 till:2018 text: Sault Area Blue Devils (2016-2018) bar:10 color:powderblue from:1965 till:1966 text: Stephenson Eagles (1965-1966) bar:11 color:powderblue from:1968 till:1981 text: West Iron County Wykons (1968-1981; 1986-1987) bar:11 color:powderblue from:1986 till:1987 text:

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1972

TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(250,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"Great Northern U.P. Conference Membership History"

Football

This list of conference champions goes through the 2022 season. 2022 is the last year that the GNC had a football conference, it will be disbanded for 2023.

Team GNC (1965–1984) ABC (1984–1990) GNC (1990–present)
1 Menominee 1969, 1971, 1982, 1983 1986-1988 1994, 1997–1999, 2003, 2005–2007, 2011, 2013–2016, 2021
2 Kingsford 1965, 1969 1990–1996, 2000–2002, 2004, 2008–2010, 2012, 2017, 2021
3 Escanaba 1966–1968, 1972, 1973, 1978-1982 1984, 1988, 1989 1994, 1998, 2018
4 Marquette 1975, 1976 2011, 2018–2021
5 Gladstone 1982 1985 1998, 2022
West Iron County 1970, 1974, 1977

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Kochanny . Drew . Change Coming to Big North . Petoskey News.