THE N.R.G. BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

ABOUT THE N.R.G. TOURNAMENT

The Northern Rio Grande Conference (NRG) was formed in late January, 1947, with a tournament planned for the last week of January, 1948. The schools that became charter members were Espanola, Pojoaque, St. Catherine, Taos, McCurdy Mission, Santa Fe Indian School, Spanish American Normal (El Rito), Santa Cruz and Los Alamos. Tierra Amarilla was present but not included because of lack of facilities. An invitational tournament was hosted by Española High School that included the charter schools in the new formed NRG and also included Chama and Tierra Amarilla. This Espanola Invitational became the FIRST NRG TOURNAMENT for historical purposes. Over the years some members dropped and other schools in Northern New Mexico applied and were accepted into the NRG keeping the membership at mostly eight member schools, although some years nine schools competed in the tournament.

COACHES & MEMBERS OF THE
ORIGINAL N.R.G. COMMITTEE

Back Row: Joe Willis (Española), Archie McDowell (Santa Cruz), Box Cox (Los Alamos), C.E. Medina (Española)

Middle Row: C.J. Powell (Santa Fe High), Joe Madrid (Pojoaque)., Frank Byers (Española), Seledon Martinez (Santa Cruz),

Vicente Martinez (El Rito), Calvin Beames (U.S. Indian School)

Front Row: Joe Abyeyta (St. Catherine), Paul Garcia (Española), Enow Garcia (Taos), Chick Martinez (McCurdy),

Pete Pino (Española)

N.R.G. TIMELINE

Timeline:

1947-First NRG Tournament
1948-First official NRG Conference Tournament
1951-Taos went to the RoswellTourney and skipped the NRG Tourney
1956-The NRG Conference tried a Class A and a Class B division in the Tourney which proved unsuccessful and was dropped after the one year. Albuquerque High and Raton made a single year appearance in 1956.
1958-Los Alamos dropped out of the NRG Conference
1959--Dulce joined the NRG
1960 - Albuquerque Indian replaced Duice for one year
1963-Espanola and Pojoaque dropped out of the NRG
1965-Pecos and lAlA were added to the NRG
1970-Pojoaque and Mesa Vista replaced Ojo Caliente and El Rito ni the NRG
1976— Escalante replaced Santa Cruz in the NRG
1979-Penasco replaced IAIA in the NRG
1986-Pojoaque dropped out
1993-First seventh place game played
1998-Last NRG for St. Catherine
2000-Menaul joined NRG; 2003-Mora replaced Menaul in NRG
2009-Santa Fe Indian School dropped and Coronado Joined the NRG
2014-Questa replaced Coronado in the NRG