User:DM1693/Lehigh-Northampton League (pre-1976)

The Lehigh-Northampton League (commonly-abbreviated as L-N, or LNL) was an athletic conference comprising high schools from Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks, Carbon, and Monroe 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
The Lehigh-Northampton League was founded in 1930 or 1931. Bangor High School, a charter member of the league, claims the L-N baseball title for spring 1931. Other sources, however, claim the 1931-32 school year as the league's initial year.

Membership history for baseball, football, and basketball
As of the 1935-36 season its members for boys basketball were Coplay, Nazareth, East Stroudsburg, Wilson Boro, Hellertown, Bangor, and South Whitehall High Schools. Fountain Hill and Pen Argyl were added to the league in the late 1930s. South Whitehall HS became Parkland HS with the merger of South Whitehall, North Whitehall and Upper Macungie school districts into the Parkland district somewhere around 1950.

Northwestern Lehigh HS opened in 1950 but did not join the league until somewhere in the 1960s. Southern Lehigh HS opened in fall 1955 but also did not join the league for many years. Palisades HS opened after 1950 (when the five Upper Bucks townships formed the joint school district) but also did not join the league unti some time in the 1960s. Salisbury HS opened in 1963 and joined the league for the 1966-67 school year (Morning Call Flashback, 16 Feb 2021). For 1957-58 the lineup was: Coplay, Nazareth, East Stroudsburg, Wilson Boro, Hellertown, Bangor, Parkland, Fountain Hill, and Pen Argyl (Morning Call Flashback, 24 May 2021).

Coplay HS closed in June 1963 when the Coplay and Whitehall school districts merged. Pocono Mountain and Pleasant Valley High Schools applied for membership but were turned down in early 1962. (Those two schools would later gain admittance to the league.) Throughout the 1960s several other high schools (some newly opened) joined the league. On 30 March 1966, Fountain Hill HS announced the withdrawal of its high school athletic programs after the approval of the Bethlehem Area School District to transfer Fountain Hill's 10th through 12th grade students to Bethlehem Liberty High School. On 9 June 1966, the league announced it had accepted applications from Salisbury, Pocono Mountain, and Pleasant Valley, who would start league play in basketball and baseball for 1966-67 and other sports (including football) in 1967-68. The 1969-70 lineup: Nazareth, East Stroudsburg, Wilson Boro/Area, Hellertown (soon to become Saucon Valley), Bangor, Parkland, Fountain Hill (how?), Pen Argyl, Northwestern, Southern Lehigh, Palisades, Salisbury, Pleasant Valley, and Pocono Mountain.

Fountain Hill HS would (finally?) close soon after. They were effectively replaced in the league by Jim Thorpe HS, who joined for 1971-72 and remained for the league's final years.

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

Schools added over the next 13-14 years: in 1956-57, Southern Lehigh; in 1957-58, Emmaus, Wilson Boro, and Whitehall; in 1959-60, Notre Dame and Dieruff; in 1960-61, Parkland; in 1961-62, Hellertown and Palisades; and in 1963-64, East Stroudsburg.

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 L-N League wrestling schools for 1963-64 were Nazareth, Southern Lehigh, Wilson Boro, Parkland, Palisades, Hellertown, and East Stroudsburg. (Salisbury HS opened and began a wrestling program for this season but did not compete in league matches until 1967-68.)

Further additions to the L-N wrestling alignment were: in 1965-66, Bangor, Pen Argyl, and Northwestern; in 1967-68, Salisbury and Pocono Mountain; in 1971-72, Jim Thorpe and Pleasant Valley.

Swimming
The Lehigh-Northampton League does not appear to have sponsored swimming. Those Lehigh Valley high schools with swimming programs before 1974 appear to have been in the East Penn Swimming League; L-N member East Stroudsburg is cited as losing an East Penn match in December 1968 to Whitehall, then a member of the Lehigh Valley League for most sports.

Mid-1970s and the end of the league
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; the L-N League dissolved for most sports, with most of its members dispersing among the two new leagues; Jim Thorpe rejoined the Anthracite League and Parkland would join the existing Lehigh Valley League for its final year, whose remaining four members would join the East Penn Conference.

High schools
The high school teams in the Lehigh-Northampton League (and their locations) were:


 * Bangor Area High School Slaters (Bangor)
 * Coplay High School ?? (Coplay)
 * East Stroudsburg High School Cavaliers (East Stroudsburg)
 * Fountain Hill High School Hillers (Fountain Hill)
 * Hellertown/Saucon Valley High School Panthers (Hellertown)
 * Jim Thorpe Area High School Olympians (Jim Thorpe)
 * Nazareth Area High School Blue Eagles (Nazareth)
 * Northwestern Lehigh High School Tigers (New Tripoli)
 * Palisades High School Pirates (Kintnersville)
 * Pen Argyl Area High School Green Knights (Pen Argyl)
 * Pleasant Valley High School Bears (Brodheadsville)
 * Pocono Mountain High School Cardinals (Swiftwater)
 * Salisbury High School Falcons (Salisbury Township)
 * South Whitehall/Parkland High School Trojans (South Whitehall Township)
 * Southern Lehigh High School Spartans (Center Valley)
 * Wilson Area High School Warriors (Wilson)

Aside from the two high schools which closed, as of 2014-15: Parkland, Nazareth, East Stroudsburg (now East Stroudsburg South), Pleasant Valley, and Pocono Mountain (now Pocono Mountain East) are now members of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. Bangor, Northwestern Lehigh, Palisades, Pen Argyl, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Southern Lehigh, and Wilson Area are members of the Colonial League. Jim Thorpe is a member of the Schuylkill League.