Head of the Lakes Conference

The Head of the Lakes Conference is a former high school athletic conference with membership in close proximity to the Twin Ports region of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Founded in 1918 and disbanded by 1954, its public school members belonged to the Minnesota State High School League and the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

The Head of the Lakes Conference traces its origin to May 1918, when six high schools in the Duluth metropolitan area held a track meet. The schools participating in that meet were the original members of the conference: Cathedral in Duluth, Denfeld, Duluth Central, Nelson Dewey in Superior, Proctor and Superior Central.^[1] Basketball^[2] and football^[3] would become sponsored sports later that fall, and the original lineup would remain intact until 1920, when Proctor left the group.^[4] They would be replaced by the recently opened Morgan Park High School of Duluth in 1921.^[5] In 1924, the Head of the Lakes Conference lost Duluth Cathedral and Nelson Dewey as members and were replaced by three incoming schools: Cloquet, Superior East and Two Harbors.^[6] The next year, Proctor rejoined the conference to increase membership to eight schools.^[7] A ninth school was added in 1928 when Duluth Cathedral rejoined the conference,^[8] and in 1929, Superior Cathedral became members.^[9] It was around this time that the conference became known informally as the Little Big Ten Conference.^[10]

In 1939, six members of the Head of the Lakes Conference (Cloquet, Denfeld, Duluth Central, Morgan Park, Proctor and Two Harbors) formed the Big Six Conference.^[11] All six schools maintained dual membership in the Head of the Lakes Conference during its existence. An eleventh school was added in 1951 when Duluth East opened its doors.^[12][13] By this time, the Head of the Lakes Conference was an organization in name only, lacking a league structure and having records kept by the local newspapers.^[14] For the 1954-55 school year, the local media stopped covering the Head of the Lakes Conference in favor of the newly renamed Big Eight Conference.^[15] The seven schools with dual membership would continue their affiliation with the Big Eight, and that conference continues to this day as the Lake Superior Conference. The other four schools (Duluth Cathedral, Superior Cathedral, Superior East and Superior Central) continued competition as independents. Superior East (1961-1965)^[16][17] and Superior Cathedral (1965-1969)^[18][19] both played for a brief period in the Michigan-Wisconsin Conference, and Duluth Cathedral would join the Lake Superior Conference in 1974.^[20] All three Superior schools would eventually close, with Central and East merging into a single Superior High School in 1965^[21] and Superior Cathedral being closed by the Diocese of Superior in 1969.^[19][22]