Great Northern UP Conference

This article is about the Michigan athletics conference. For the Wisconsin conference, see Great Northern Conference.

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 was disbanded in 2023, but all other sports continue.[1]

Member schools

Current members

Team Location Colors Enrollment Class Joined Previous Conference
Escanaba Eskymos Escanaba     690 B 1965 Great Lakes Conference (Independent from 1986 to 1988)
Gladstone Braves Gladstone     428 B 2018 Mid-Peninsula Athletic Conference
Kingsford Flivvers Kingsford     548 B 1965 Menominee Range Conference
Marquette Redmen Marquette     896 A 1973 Great Lakes Conference
Menominee Maroons Menominee     391 C 1965 Independent

Former members

Team Location Joined Previous Conference Departed Successive Conference
Escanaba Holy Name Crusaders Escanaba 1965 Independent 1970 N/A (football team abolished)
Iron Mountain Mountaineers Iron Mountain 1965 Menominee Range Conference 1978 Mid-Peninsula Athletic Conference
Luther L. Wright Red Devils Ironwood 1971 Menominee Range Conference 1987 Independent
West Iron County Wykons Iron River 1968 None (School opened) 1988 (Independent from 1982 to 1986) Independent
Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils Sault Ste. Marie 2016 Independent 2017 Independent
Stephenson Eagles Stephenson 1965 Great Lakes Conference 1966 Land-O-Lakes Conference

Membership timeline

West Iron County High SchoolSault Area High SchoolMenominee High School (Michigan)Marquette Senior High SchoolEscanaba Senior High School

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 —

References

  1. ^ Kochanny, Drew. "Change Coming to Big North". Petoskey News.


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