The Mid State Conference was formed in 1926 with Beatrice, Columbus, Fremont, Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney, and York. Norfolk had joined by the time football started in the fall, and Fairbury joined for the first basketball season, giving the league nine teams covering a wide expanse of the state.
For the first year, only three football games were required to qualify for title; four after that. Five games were necessary to be eligible for the basketball title. Some conference teams may have competed in baseball. Hastings did not.
Crete joined the Mid-State for the 1931 basketball season. They had been undefeated in football season and named state champ by the Lincoln paper, but were not in conference.
Hastings won five of the nine conference basketball titles in the league's history. They won back-to-back track titles in 1930 and 1931, and captured the football title in 1933. All were under the tutelage of all-sport coach Dwight Thomas.
The ten team league never played a full round-robin schedule. The track meets seldom had full attendance. In fact, schedules in the Mid State never became standardized- some teams played more games and others less- and several conference championships are disputed. In 1934 and 1935, conference champions in football and basketball are recognized in the newspapers, but I can find no account of track meets. It’s possible that those last few track meets were never held as the conference struggled and eventually dissolved. The last mention of this conference is during the 1936 football season.
Hastings had no conference affiliation from winter of 1936 through the winter of 1938 when the Mid East Conference was formed.
* York 2-0-1 beats GI (4-1) and Beatrice (2-0, not 3 game min.).
**Meet hosted by Grand Island instead of Columbus on May 4, according to Lincoln paper on 4-2-29. Beatrice was at Southeastern meet on that date, according to Lincoln paper on 5-5-29. Hastings College Central Nebraska meet was same day. It may have been held after the state meet or maybe not at all.
*** Beatrice finished 3-0-1 (Lincoln paper 11-28-29). Grand Island finished 2-0-2 (Lincoln paper 11-29-29) and has a trophy.
**** Crete was conference champion according to Lincoln newspaper (12-2-1932), but Grand Island has a trophy for this season.
***** No result has been found in newspaper and trophy searches. It is possible that the conference was beginning to come apart at this time.
***** Again, no result has been found in newspaper and trophy searches. It is possible that the conference was beginning to come apart at this time.
****** I have not found any official mention of Fairbury as conference champion though the individual game results point to that. The league may have disbanded quietly. No mention of the league in Omaha or Lincoln papers after football season.