Charter members of the NLC were the high schools of Bremen, Manchester, Nappanee, Plymouth, Rochester and Warsaw.
The conference was "intended to provide good, clean competition and fellowship for the boys, the coaches, and the school bodies of the Northern Lakes region."
Additional sports added to NLC Boys' competition included Swimming in 1980 and Soccer in 1994.
[1] The NLC has a rich basketball history, producing NBA stars like Scott Skiles, Rick Fox, and Shawn Kemp.
On February 11, 2017, the Warsaw Tigers made league history by becoming the first team to win the conference in three consecutive years while going undefeated (21-0) during that span.