Sugar Grove High School Basketball Team, 1930s - 1940s
In the 1930s and 1940s, the Sugar Grove High School Basketball Team brought home tournament and championship trophies as part of the Little 8 Conference.
Below, the history of the Little 8 Conference is told by the "Illinois High School Glory Days" Website. http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id349.html
Little 8 (North Central) 1921 to 1975
This conference was formed in 1921 as the Little 6 and its charter members were Buda, Bureau Twp, Manlius, Ohio, Sheffield and Walnut. Ohio left in 1926 and Neponset joined. The name changed to the Little 8 in 1928 when Tiskilwa and Wyanet joined. La Moille and Malden joined later under the Little 8 banner. By 1952, Walnut had moved to the Blackhawk conference. Bureau Twp dropped football in 1955. Manlius moved to the Blackhawk in 1958. Buda and Sheffield consolidated in 1961 to form Buda Western. That same year Annawan and Tampico joined the league. Malden dropped football for good after the 1965 season. Buda Western moved to the Blackhawk in 1968 and De Pue was added to take their place. This alignment was stable through the 1975 season which was the leagues final year. Neponset dropped football after 1975.
Little 8 (Far North)
This version of the Little 8 began play in the 1920s, and by the 1934-35 basketball and baseball seasons included Aurora Marmion, Burlington, Elburn, Hampshire, Kaneville, Maple Park, Plato Center, and Sugar Grove. The conference also organized musicals and other theatrical activities for its member schools. By 1937, Marmion had dropped out and Big Rock had taken its place. Burlington and Plato Center consolidated in 1951, and then Hiawatha joined from the Shark Conference. Further consolidations reduced Elburn, Kaneville, Maple Park and Sugar Grove into Kaneland in 1958, and Big Rock into Hinckley (in the Little 10) in 1957.
Football member schools played in the Rainbow Conference until 1958, when the Little 8 was recognized as its own football conference with four schools: Central, Genoa-Kingston, Kaneland, and Hiawatha. Huntley added football in 1959 and Earlville in 1960. In 1963 Kaneland moved to the bigger Little 7 conference and Paw Paw fielded a team for the first time in the league. In 1964 Hampshire had its first full varsity team and in 1965 Alden-Hebron and Richmond-Burton joined and Paw Paw dropped football meaning for the first time the Little 8 actually had 8 football playing members. But not for long. In 1967 Mooseheart joined the league and in 1973 Wheaton Christian did likewise. The resulting 10 team circuit played its final year in 1979.Basketball Scores