The Southwest Wisconsin Activities League, originally known as the Southwest Wisconsin Athletic League, was formed in 1926 by a group of ten small- to medium-sized high schools in southwestern Wisconsin.[1] Original members were Cuba City, Darlington, Dodgeville, Fennimore, Lancaster, Mineral Point, Monroe, Monticello, Mount Horeb and Platteville. Monticello would only be a member during the league's first season, after which they left to become a charter member of the newly formed State Line League.[2] A year later, Monroe would make its exit from the SWAL to help form the new Southern Six Conference.[3] Conference membership remained at eight until 1935, when Boscobel and Prairie du Chien joined the conference.[4] The SWAL maintained this alignment for the next twenty-six years, until expansion caused the league to undergo its first membership split.
West Grant left the conference in 1969 to join the Black Hawk League and were replaced by Viroqua (formerly of the South Central Conference).[7] In 1970, Richland Center High School was accepted for the 1971-72 school year as the SWAL's fifteenth member school.[8] They were placed in the league's North Seciton, with Iowa-Grant shifting to the South Section to accommodate the expansion:
North Section
South Section
Boscobel
Cuba City
Fennimore
Darlington
Prairie du Chien
Dodgeville
Richland Center
Iowa-Grant
River Valley
Lancaster
Riverdale
Mineral Point
Viroqua
Mount Horeb
Platteville
The SWAL never competed in this new alignment, though. Soon after Richland Center joined, the schools in the league's South Section left to form the new Southern Eight Conference.[9] The remaining schools in the SWAL's North Section continued as a seven-member circuit for sixteen years.
In 1987, the Southern Eight Conference merged with the SWAL to create a fourteen-member conference.[10] All original Southern Eight members (with the exception of Mount Horeb, who left the Southern Eight in 1983) rejoined the league, with Southwestern High School in Hazel Green making their SWAL debut. Viroqua also left the SWAL to join the Coulee Conference that year. With conference expansion came subdivision by enrollment into large (Division 1) and small school (Division 2) divisions:
SWAL Division 1
SWAL Division 2
Cuba City
Boscobel
Dodgeville
Darlington
Lancaster
Fennimore
Platteville
Iowa-Grant
Prairie du Chien
Mineral Point
Richland Center
Riverdale
River Valley
Southwestern
With the exception of Cuba City and Boscobel swapping divisions in 2003,[11] this divisional alignment remained intact for the next eighteen years before the SWAL split its membership for a second time.
In 2005, six members of SWAL Division 1 (Dodgeville, Lancaster, Platteville, Prairie du Chien, Richland Center and River Valley) left the league to form the new Southwest Wisconsin Conference. The original league's name was changed to its current name (the Southwest Wisconsin Activities League) as part of the breakup, and the eight remaining members (Boscobel, Cuba City, Darlington, Fennimore, Iowa-Grant, Mineral Point, Riverdale and Southwestern) have maintained a stable eight-school circuit to the present day.[12]
