User:DM1693/East Penn Conference (pre-2002)

The East Penn Conference (abbreviated as the EPC; formerly the East Penn League or EPL) was an athletic conference comprising high schools primarily from Lehigh and Northampton counties in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States. It was part of District XI of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History
Prior to the 1976-77 school year, the "East Penn League" moniker was applied to multiple leagues covering different sports. These may have been administered as separate leagues. Thus the early origins of the conference are varied.

From the formation of scholastic sports leagues after World War I, until as recently as the mid-1970s, many Pennsylvania high schools belonged to different leagues in different sports. (Some smaller sports today, such as ice hockey, still have separate leagues.) This article will treat many of these leagues as belonging to an "umbrella" East Penn League, but further research may throw shade on this notion.

A claim appears to have been made in the past that the original founding of the EPC dated to the founding of the Eastern Pennsylvania Interscholastic Basketball League, but that is in dispute. References to the "Eastern Pennsylvania Scholastic League" in baseball have been found as early as spring 1923. The basketball circuit played its first season in the 1925-26 school year.

It is unclear at this time if the "East Penn" or "Eastern Pennsylvania" name was applied to leagues for sports such as swimming and so on, in this era. These sports may have developed interscholastic competition as late as the 1950s.

(Note to self: I need to find the Morning Call's special section on the EPL/EPC's 50th anniversary.)

Basketball
The EPIBL was founded in 1925 with six founding members: Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton High Schools left the Lehigh Valley League to become charter East Penn members, along with Pottsville High School in Schuylkill County, Pottstown High School in Montgomery County, and Coatesville High School in Chester County.

(Note to self: Rudy Bednar's article listed above indicates that Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton would have left the LVL to found the EPIBL in that year, which jibes with my recollection of the MC article that gives those three plus Pottsville as the founding schools -- not sure how Pottstown and Coatesville came into the picture but they were certainly in the league for its inaugural season.)

For 1927-28, Tamaqua may have joined the league, though a 1929 article indicates they were in the A.I.B. that year (Anthracite League). They were certainly in the league no later than summer 1935. Hazleton High School (one of the precursors to modern-day Hazleton Area HS) joined the EPIBL no later than 1928; a newspaper article previewing the 1928-29 season noted them as prohibitive favorites to win the league. (Hazleton would not lose a single game in 1928-29 en route to the PIAA championship.)

By 1935-36, Pottstown and Coatesville had dropped out, and Mahanoy City had joined.

The Bethlehem/Liberty HS archives give some hints as to league membership. For 1925-26, BHS plaed the following teams twice: Allentown, Easton, Pottsville, Pottstown, Coatesville, Lebanon. (The latter was not in the EPIBL.) For 1926-27, BHS played the following teams twice: Allentown, Easton, Pottsville, Pottstown, Coatesville, Norristown, and Wilkes-Barre (7 H+H opponents). Not sure if this should imply the latter two as being in the league. For 1927-28: add Hazleton and Doylestown, drop Wilkes-Barre (8 H+HO). For 1928-29: Coatesville drops to one game, add Whitehall (but they're in the LVL). 1929-30: Drop Whitehall, Coatesville back to two games, add Tamaqua (9 H+HO). 1930-31: drop Norristown and Tamaqua (7 H+HO). 1931-32: drop Pottstown, Doylestown, and Coatesville; add East Stroudsburg (5 H+HO). 1932-33: add Mahanoy City (6 H+HO). 1933-34: add Tamaqua (7 H+HO). 1934-35: no changes. 1935-36: drop East Stroudsburg (6 H+HO). 1936-37: no changes. 1937-38: add Phillipsburg (7 H+HO). 1938-39: drop P-burg and Mahanoy City, add Reading and Norristown (7 H+HO). 1939-40: add P-burg (8 H+HO). 1940-41: drop Norristown (7 H+HO). 1941-42: no change. 1942-43: drop P-burg, Reading down to one game, add ACCHS (6 H+HO). 1943-44: Reading back to home+home (7 H+HO). 1944-45: add Pottstown and Coatesville, drop Tamaqua (8 H+HO). 1945-46: add P-burg (9 H+HO). 1946-47: drop Coatesville (8 H+HO). 1947-48: drop Pottstown and Allentown (latter program suspended), add Perkiomen (7 H+HO). 1948-49: add Pottstown (8 H+HO). 1949-50: drop Pottstown and Perkiomen (6 H+HO). 1950-51: add Allentown; P-burg and Hazleton drop to one game (5 H+HO). 1951-52: Hazleton back to home+home (6 H+HO). 1952-53: no change. 1953-54: drop P-burg altogether (6 H+HO). 1954-55: no change. 1955-56: no change. 1956-57: Reading drops to one game (5 H+HO). 1957-58: no change.

Via MCall, membership in 1957-58 was Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Pottsville, Hazleton, and CCHS. Tamaqua and Mahanoy City had left previously for the Black Diamond League. Tamaqua would rejoin the league for the 1961-62 year. Allentown would add a new high school in 1958; Allentown became William Allen, and the new high school was Louis E. Dieruff, who began varsity play in 1959-60.

Liberty site again with BHS home-and-homes... 1958-59: same as 57-58. 1959-60: add Dieruff (6 H+HO). 1960-61: no change. 1961-62: add Tamaqua (7 H+HO). 1962-63: no change. 1963-64: add P-burg (8 H+HO). 1964-65: no change. 1965-66: add Becahi, though as noted next they weren't in the league yet (9 HH+HO).

MCall sez, membership in 1965-66: Allen, Dieruff, Bethlehem, Easton, Pottsville, Hazleton, CCHS, Tamaqua, and P-burg. The latter had joined the league at some point between summer 1958 and summer 1965. Bethlehem would formally become Liberty with the closure of Fountain Hill HS in summer 1966 and formation of Freedom HS for 1967-68, which began league play two years later according to a pair of Morning Call Flashback articles. These articles also say that Freedom was approved on 29 March 1967 as the 11th member, implying that Bethlehem Catholic must have already been approved for membership by then.

Liberty site's home+homes, 1966-67: same as 65-66. 1967-68: no change. 1968-69: add Freedom, who started league play the following year (10 H+HO). 1969-70: no change.

Via MCall, membership in 1969-70: Allen, Dieruff, Liberty, Freedom, Easton, Pottsville, Hazleton, CCHS, Tamaqua, P-burg, and Bethlehem Catholic. (The last had also joined between summer 1966 and VERY early 1967.)

Liberty site's home+homes, 1970-71: same as 69-70. 1971-72: drop Tamaqua entirely (9 H+HO). 1972-73: no change. 1973-74: no change. 1974-75: no change.

MCall: Tamaqua left for the Schuylkill League by the 1973-74 school year. (This says their last EPL season was 1970-71, which jibes with the Liberty site.) Girls basketball did not include Pottsville nor Hazleton, but did include Notre Dame (Green Pond) and St Francis Academy. Notre Dame (GP) would join the Centennial League upon its formation in 1975-76, at which time Emmaus, Whitehall, and Northampton came to the newly redesignated EPC from the LVL, along with Parkland from the L-N League. This gave a hoops league of 14 teams for boys and 13 for girls.

St Francis Academy was apparently opened in 1957, according to here; I haven't found an online resource indicating when it closed.

Liberty site: with the Great Re-org, the 1975-76 season split the league into two divisions, and LHS boys played home+homes against only the teams in its division (Parkland, Northampton, Whitehall, Emmaus, Freedom, and Becahi), and the other division's teams only once (Allen, Dieruff, ACCHS, Easton, P-burg, Hazleton, Pottsville).

Wrestling
A Lehigh Valley League for wrestling was formed in 1950 for scholastic wrestling, which comprised all of the area schools with wrestling programs. The initial wrestling schools were Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Northampton, Phillipsburg, and Nazareth for the 1950-51 season.

Schools added later: in for 1956-57, Southern Lehigh; for 1957-58, Emmaus, Wilson, and Whitehall; for 1959-60, Notre Dame and Dieruff; for 1960-61, Parkland; for 1961-62, Hellertown, Palisades, and Slatington.

In the summer of 1963 the wrestling league split into three "league divisons" largely lining up with the schools' league affiliations for baseball and basketball. The East Penn League division for 1963-64 comprised Allen, Dieruff, Bethlehem, Easton, Phillipsburg, and Notre Dame. Bethlehem Catholic began its wrestling program in 1965-66, beginning league play that year as well, along with Neshaminy and Pennsbury out of southeastern Pennsylvania. Neshaminy and Pennsbury departed the EPL for wrestling after the spring of 1974, and Allentown Central Catholic's wrestling program (which had started in 1966-67) was added to the league for 1974-75.

Swimming
The East Penn Swimming League appears to have been the primary scholastic swimming league in the Lehigh Valley prior to 1974; most or all those Lehigh Valley high schools with swimming programs before 1974 appear to have been in the EPSL. Emmaus, whose primary league was the Lehigh Valley League, won the EPSL championship in 1969 and 1971-74. LVL member Whitehall is cited as winning an East Penn match in December 1968 against East Stroudsburg, then a member of the Lehigh-Northampton League for most sports.

Baseball
The league first saw action in the 1922-23 school year and played through 1931-32. Initial membership: Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Gettysburg, Harrisburg Technical, Lebanon, Reading. (Champs in order: Easton, Bethlehem, Easton, Easton, Bethlehem, Easton, Easton, Allentown, Reading, Reading.) It had included teams as far away as Gettysburg during that decade. It then disbanded but came back a year later as a four-team league for 1933-34: Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and Reading.

This article from the Reading Eagle indicates that Reading HS played baseball in the league in 1954-55 (winning the EPL that year); this one gives the league members as Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, P-burg, CCHS, and Reading; and this one shows that for spring 1965, the EPL baseball circuit included not only Reading but Notre Dame (plus Allen, Dieruff, CCHS, Bethlehem, Easton, and P-burg).

Other sports
Other sports also had somewhat differing league alignments.

References for future use: Easton swimming in the late 1960s Morning Call Flashback (16 Feb 2016): among other things, notes Tamaqua's last game in the Black Diamond League before rejoining the EPL (Feb 1961) and Tamaqua's last game in the EPL before joining the (North) Schuylkill League (Feb 1971). Morning Call Flashback (26 Jan 2009): stories about basketball, swimming, and wrestling. Morning Call Flashback (15 Feb 2015): stories about basketball but more importantly wrestling. Morning Call Flashback (22 Feb 2015): includes notes of the final L-N and LVL seasons that ended in February 1975.

Morning Call Flashback (24 Oct 2016): notes the East Penn Soccer League, which included Bethlehem/Liberty (1961-66), Palisades (1963), Wilson (1966), and Fountain Hill (1961) among its teams. The same article also notes the Tri-County Cross Country League, which was operating at least as late as fall 1971; Salisbury beat Phillipsburg for the league title that year. The same article also notes Panther Valley as a member of the L-N League for football in 1966. Panther Valley High School was formed in the fall of 1964 as a merger of Coaldale, Lansford, Summit Hill, and Nesquehoning high schools. The latter may have merged in later in the 1960s. The article, originally from the Reading Eagle, also notes that those four schools, along with Jim Thorpe and Pleasant Valley, made up the Black Diamond Basketball League in 1963-64; the BDBL presumably disbanded or merged into another league not long after. Rudy Bednar nots that District 11 was carved off of District 1 in 1932.

More mentions of Easton swimming winning East Penn titles in the late 60s, plus Easton's field hockey team in the Penn-Jersey (Hockey) League/Conference. Emmaus's leagues in field hockey (through the late 80s) are detailed in a 1989 MCall article. Easton field hockey stayed in the Penn-Jersey Hockey League through at least 1972 (won the league title) and won the East Penn title in 1976, implying that the East Penn may not have sponsored field hockey until the Great Re-Org.

Mid-1970s
At the end of the 1974-75 school year there was a large-scale reorganization of scholastic leagues in the Lehigh Valley. Two new leagues were founded, while the Lehigh Valley League and Lehigh-Northampton League discontinued operations. The East Penn League was redesignated the East Penn Conference and expanded, adding Emmaus, Northampton, and Whitehall (from the LVL) and Parkland (former L-N League school that joined the LVL for 1975-76 only). Notre Dame Green Pond's girls basketball team left the EPC to join the school's other teams in the newly founded Colonial League. This brought basketball membership to 14 boys teams and 13 girls teams.

1980s and 1990s
Pottsville's boys basketball team left the EPC after the 1977-78 season. Hazleton stayed in the league at least through 1980-81 (my senior year at CCHS). This article from the Morning Call says that Hazleton left the EPC after the 1982-83 school year. In baseball, Reading remained in the EPC through the 1981-82 season, winning the league title in their final year.

Northampton left the EPC to help form the Mountain Valley Conference which began league play with the 1994-95 school year.

Phillipsburg left the EPC and joined the Skyland Conference beginning with the 1995-96 school year, in order to be eligible for NJSIAA playoffs.

At the end of the 1996-97 school year Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Parkland, and Whitehall dropped out of the EPC to join the MVC. Pottsville was added as a football affiliate starting in 2000-01.

2000s and 2010s
Ten of the eleven Pennsylvania schools that had been in the EPC from 1976-1993 joined with Nazareth High School on November 14, 2001 to form the Lehigh Valley Conference (LVC). The eleventh EPC school, Bethlehem Catholic, was admitted to the LVC in February 2002. The EPC dissolved on June 5, 2002, with the LVC officially beginning operations later that same day; while the LVC was the successor and a de facto continuation of the EPC, formally the two leagues were completely separate entities, and EPC results and records were not carried over into the LVC books.

On October 2, 2013, the LVC voted to invite the six remaining MVC schools to the conference, effectively merging the two leagues into a large 18-school "superconference." With the merger taking place, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference was officially introduced on June 4, 2014, with play starting in the 2014-15 school year. This is not the same league as the 20th century EPC, though the common abbreviation is the same. LVC and MVC results and records were not carried over into the Eastern PA Conference books.

High schools
The 12 high school teams in the post-1983 East Penn Conference lineup (with their locations and years of EPC membership) were:


 * William Allen High School Canaries (Allentown), until 2002.
 * Allentown Central Catholic High School Vikings (Allentown), until 2002.
 * Bethlehem Catholic High School Golden Hawks (Bethlehem), until 2002.
 * Dieruff High School Huskies (Allentown), until 2002.
 * Easton Area High School Red Rovers (Easton), until 1997.
 * Emmaus High School Green Hornets (Emmaus), until 2002.
 * Freedom High School Patriots (Bethlehem), until 1997.
 * Liberty High School Hurricanes (Bethlehem), until 1997.
 * Northampton Area High School Konkrete Kids (Northampton), until 1994.
 * Parkland High School Trojans (South Whitehall Township), until 1997.
 * Phillipsburg High School Stateliners (Phillipsburg, NJ), until 1995.
 * Whitehall High School Zephyrs (Whitehall Township), until 1997.

Associate member (for football only) of the East Penn Conference:
 * Pottsville Area High School Crimson Tide (Pottsville), 2000-02.