History of the Green Meadows Conference

The Green Meadows Conference was formed as an athletic conference in 1962.  The charter members of the conference were Ayersville, Fairview, Hicksville, Paulding and  Jewell (now Tinora). 

Green Meadows League Formed

Competition in the newly formed Green Meadows Conference will begin this basketball season, it was reported today by Alan Moore, secretary-treasurer of the league.

Plans for the league had been under study for several months before it was finally made official.

Participants in the circuit include Northeastern (Jewell), Ayersville, Hicksville, Fairview and Paulding.

President of the league is Ward Fritz and Lee Himmeger is vice president. Competition will be in basketball, baseball and track.

Freshmen and Junior High will also be included. In the Junior High division there will be nine teams. In addition to those already mentioned, Tiffin, Noble, Sherwood, Ney and Mark Center will compete.

The Freshman tournament is scheduled for Ayersville and the Junior High tournament is set for Sherwood.

Defiance Crescent-News, Oct. 10, 1962, pg 17

 In 1965, Oakwood, from Paulding County joined the conference. Then in 1966,  Blue Creek joined.

Holgate joined the conference in 1968.

The conference stayed intact until 1972, when district consolidations in Paulding County caused some changes in the make-up of some member schools. Blue Creek became a part of the new Wayne Trace School District, along with Grover Hill and Payne.  Oakwood became a part of the Paulding Exempted School System.  Antwerp joined the league making the number of members eight.

Antwerp, Ayersville, Hicksville, Holgate, Fairview, Paulding, Tinora and Wayne Trace.

In 1974, Paulding left the GMC and joined the Northwest Conference.  So in 1975 the league admitted Edgerton to the conference. 

In 2021, Holgate left the conference to join the Buckeye Border Conference and Paulding was invited back. Holgate's last year was 2021-22. and Paulding's first year back was 2022-23

The First GMC contest was a basketball game played on November 23, 1962 between Ayersville and Fairview.  Ayersville was victorious by a score of 51-28.

Ayersville was the first league champion in boys basketball in the 1962-63 season. Standings for that first year:

1963 - There was a freshman basketball tournament held at Ayersville and Oakwood was the winner.  Oakwood participated in the conference with a freshman team at first, then in 1965 they participated on the varsity level.

There was also a Junior high tournament held at Sherwood and Sherwood was the winner.  Teams from Sherwood, Ney, Mark Center, Tiffin, Noble, Jewell, Hicksville. Ayersville, Paulding were in the tournament