Palo Alto College - NJCAA Palo Alto College Athletics

NJCAA ATHLETICS History In 1945, the NJCAA, weakened by the war and not yet ready to renew activities, had given its blessings to an invitational basketball tournament at Compton. The tournament mushroomed into a national activity by 1947, with teams participating from as far away as Washington and Louisiana. Other schools from the Great Lakes area, the middle west, and the east coast clamored for invitations that could not be provided. Clearly, a nationwide basketball program, sponsored by the NJCAA, was a necessity. Compton invited the NJCAA to call a special meeting in connection with its 1947 tournament, to consider a national basketball program, from which grew the present regional and national tourney plan. Attempts were made to carry on this extensive program of national competition, but lack of entries and financial hardships caused the curtailment of golf, tennis, boxing, gymnastics, and swimming after a three year trial. However, these events could be conducted at anytime in the future when requests from five or more regions were filed. In 1949, the NJCAA was reorganized by dividing the nation into sixteen regions. The officers of the association were the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, public relations director, and the sixteen regional vice presidents. The NJCAA Bulletin was authorized and published as the official organ of the Association. Among other official acts, policies for conducting regional and national events were written, the constitution was revised, the organization was incorporated as a non-profit corporation, and the first NJCAA Handbook was published. This booklet gave status and stability to the organization that it had lacked in previous years. Hutchinson, Kansas, became the site for the NJCAA Championship Basketball Tournament. Co-sponsors, the Lysle Rishel Post, American Legion, and the Hutchinson Junior College hosted this event in 1949. The growth of the organization and the work of the committees outmoded the 1950 Handbook, necessitating a second edition in 1952. Source: http://www.njcaa.org/todaysNJCAA_History.cfm?category=History 19

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