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NJCAA

ATHLETICS

History

The idea for the NJCAA was conceived in 1937 at Fresno, California.
A handful of junior college representatives met to organize an
association that would promote and supervise a national program of
junior college sports and activities consistent with the educational
objectives of junior colleges.
The constitution presented at the charter meeting in Fresno on May
14, 1938, was accepted and the National Junior College Athletic
Association became a functioning organization.
Colleges represented at the charter meeting were Bakersfield,
Chaffey, Compton, Fullerton, Glendale, Los Angeles, Pasadena,
Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernadino, San Mateo, Santa Monica,
and Visalia.
The initial activity sponsored by the NJCAA was track and field.
Sacramento played host to the first National Junior College Track
and Field Meet in 1939, which started a series of annual meets,
unbroken except for three years during World War II. While the first
meet drew only California schools, the second, in Modesto, in 1940,
assumed a wider scope with participants from Phoenix, Arizona and
Trinidad, Colorado, in addition to the Californians.
While founded by California men, there was no intention for the
NJCAA to be just a "West Coast Organization". This became apparent
when Trinidad College's invitation to sponsor the 1941 Track meet at
Denver, Colorado, was accepted.
The NJCAA was fast gaining national recognition. At the 1941 meet
in Denver, teams representing colleges from east of the Mississippi,
joined southern and west coast members.
After Pearl Harbor, only one more meet was held during the war
years. This was staged at Visalia, California, and was the last
sponsored activity by the NJCAA until the spring of 1946 when the
fifth National Junior College Track and Field Meet was held at
Phoenix, Arizona.

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Source: http://www.njcaa.org/todaysNJCAA_History.cfm?category=History