The Vaqueros de Bayamón are a Puerto Rican basketball team of the
Baloncesto Superior Nacional
The Baloncesto Superior Nacional, abbreviated as BSN, is the first-tier-level professional men's basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1929 and is organized by the Puerto Rican Basketball Federation.
T ...
based in
Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Bayamón (, ) is a Bayamón barrio-pueblo, city, Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality of Puerto Rico and suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan located in the northern coastal valley, north of Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, Aguas Buenas an ...
. The Vaqueros play their home games at
Rubén Rodríguez Coliseum, a venue shared with the
Liga de Voleibol Superior Femenino
The Liga de Voleibol Superior Femenino (LVSF) is a professional volleyball league in Puerto Rico. The competitions are organized by the Puerto Rican Volleyball Federation (Federación Puertorriqueña de Voleibol, FPV).
Current teams
League c ...
women's volleyball team
Vaqueras de Bayamón
Vaqueras de Bayamón is the professional female volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized ...
. The Vaqueros are the most successful team in the history of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional, having won 16 league championships, their last being in 2022.
The franchise began in 1930 and still stands as one of the league's original clubs. Led by
Rubén Rodríguez, Bayamón established a BSN record for most consecutive championships with 5, from 1971 to 1975. After losing in the 2001, 2002 and 2005 BSN Finals, the Vaqueros won their record fourteenth championship by defeating the
Piratas de Quebradillas
The Piratas de Quebradillas is a Puerto Rican basketball team, part of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional league. Founded in the mid 1920s, it is one of the original teams of the league. The club enjoyed its most successful era during the 1970s, ...
for the 2009 title, their first in 13 years.
In December 2020, the Vaqueros won their 15th championship and first in eleven years, winning the tournament that was held inside a bubble due to the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
outbreak.
Among other records, the Vaqueros hold the record for most games won in a BSN season, 29 of them, set during the 1993 season.
Rubén Rodríguez
Rubén Rodríguez played for the Vaqueros for 23 seasons, always wearing number 15. He debuted in the league in 1969 and scored 11,549 points and 6,178 rebounds in 631 games. He established various records in the league:
* Points in a career - 11,549 .
* Points in a season - 810 (1979)
* Points in a game - 52 (1973)
* Rebounds in a career - 6,178
He also had the record of rebounds in a season from 1978 to 2008; this record was broken by
Lee Benson on May 3, 2008, also joining the Vaqueros.
Rodríguez spent his whole career with the team Vaqueros of Bayamón. With the Vaqueros, he won 9 national championships, 1967, 1969, five in a row from 1971 to 1975, one in 1981 and one in 1988, the year that the team inaugurated his actual venue, that carries his name, the Rubén Rodríguez Coliseum. He also garnered the MVP award in 1979, and, once the three-point shot was established for the first time in the Puerto Rican tournament during the 1980 season, he started making shots from behind the three-point line too.
Franchise history
The Vaqueros de Bayamon team was founded in 1930 on what was formerly known as the Baloncesto Nacional (now Baloncesto Superior Nacional BSN) league, an amateur league. The team's original name was ''Bayamon''. The Bayamon team won their first championships in the league in 1933 and 1935. Becoming the second team to win two titles in the league, they were guided by the Professional Head Coach Onofre Carballeira. During the following decade (the 1940s) the team was inactive due to
WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. By 1954 the team was competing in the BSN League again, but this time the team would be known as the Azules de Bayamón (lit. "Bayamon Blues") in Spanish. Under that name, Bayamon did not win a title.
The following season the team was renamed to The Vaqueros de Bayamon. This new name was given by the team sponsor Espasas Dairy Company as a reference to their business. It wasn't until 1967 that the team reached the Finals against the Ponce team, against whom the Vaqueros won the series and their third championship (their first in 34 years). The team was starting to become known as a competitive one around the league. In less than two years, the team would repeat its success when they reached the finals and conquered another title in 1969. The success of the team was about to reach its climax in the 1970s. The Vaqueros won five consecutive championships during the decade, from 1971 to 1975. They became the top team in the league. During their golden era (1970s) the team was guided by coaches Roy Rubbins, Art Loche, Lou Rossini,
Fufi Santori
José Santori Coll (May 7, 1932 – April 2, 2018) was a Puerto Rican basketball player and coach. Santori was also, for a short period late in his life, a bachata singer; he recorded an album, named ''El Sentimiento de Fufi'' (''Fufi's Feelin ...
, Tom Nissalke and
Del Harris
Delmer William Harris (born June 18, 1937) is an American basketball coach who is currently the vice president of the Texas Legends, the NBA G League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks. He served as a head coach for the NBA's Houston Rockets, Mil ...
. During the 1980s a new rivalry was taking place in the BSN; this time the Vaqueros had to battle for supremacy against the
Guaynabo Mets
Mets de Guaynabo is a Puerto Rican professional basketball team of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional based in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. The team dissolved in 2015, but was reinstated with new ownership in 2019.
The team was founded in 1935 as the ...
team, which was led by
Mario Morales
Mario Morales Micheo (born November 13, 1957) is a former Puerto Rican basketball player. He is known as a.k.a. "Quijote" Morales for his ability to conquer both scoring and team championships in Puerto Rico's BSN league. He is the father of Ev ...
and
Federico Lopez Federico (; ) is a given name and surname. It is a form of Frederick, most commonly found in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.
People with the given name Federico
Artists
* Federico Ágreda, Venezuelan composer and DJ.
* Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, r ...
. The Vaqueros de Bayamon won the final series against Guaynabo in 1981 giving them another championship. Another achievement for the team was their fanatics which were counted in many thousands by the 1980s and 1990s. In 1988 guided by Robert Corn the team reached the finals against the Canovanas team and once again won a championship. In the 90s the team had an average decade with two more championships in 1995 and 1996 Both against the
Ponce Lions. These titles came with
Flor Melendez, who had coached the team to their 1981 championship, as head coach.
By the late 1990s the team was about to face one of its worst decades since the 50s. From 1999 to 2008, the team could hardly make it into the semifinals (except in 2005 when they reached the finals and lost for the title against the
Arecibo Captains
The Capitanes de Arecibo are a Puerto Rican professional basketball team based in Arecibo that competes in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) league. In 2010, the team also had the distinction to play in the Premier Basketball League (PBL) u ...
in four games); as a consequence, the franchise's quality and prestige as well as the fan base began to decrease. However most of the fanbase remained throughout the years.
In 2009 the franchise won their most recent championship, tying at fourteen with the
San German Athletics for most overall titles in the league.
Nowadays the team still is considered among the best teams in the league.
Coronavirus outbreak
Late in 2020, it was announced that eight members of the Vaqueros were suffering from the
coronavirus
Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...
disease, heading into a November continuation of the 2020 BSN tournament at a hotel in
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
.
Players
Current roster
Traditions
Uniforms
The Vaqueros have two different uniforms: a white home uniform and blue road uniform. The design of the white and blue sets are nearly identical, with the team name featured on the front over the number, and the player's last name over the number on the back and under the vaqueros' logo. The shorts have golden stripes on the sides of the pants and shirts in both designs.
Arena
Inaugurated in 1988, The Rubén Rodriguez Coliseum is the hosting arena for the team's local games. It was the named after the former team player. This coliseum is the third-largest indoor sports arena in Puerto Rico. It can accommodate up to 13,000 spectators, though it is known that this arena was able to fit nearly 16,000 on the team's finals. The seating of the coliseum divides in three sections:
* Box area (Palco) (blue section)
* Middle area (Preferencia) (yellow)
* General area (orange)
Originally (by the 1980s and early 1990s) the home arena for the Cowboys was the Pepín Cestero Arena, also located in Bayamon.
Logos
File:Vaquerosdeb.png, Home uniform
File:Vaquerosdebcopy.png, Road uniform
File:Bayamon_Vaqueros_Basketball_Logo.png, Previously used logo
File:Vaquerosdebayamon.jpg, Previously used logo
File:BayamonVaquerosBSN.png, Current logo
Fan base
The Vaqueros have always kept a large fandom, however within most of the last decade (from 2000 to 2008) it decreased due to the lack of success or championships. In the 1990s the fanbase of the Vaqueros reached over 12,000 fans. In the season '09 the fandom increased at a high tendency, as the team conquered its 14 championship. The attendance to the final game was estimated over 14,000 fans from which over 11,000 were Cowboys fans. From 1988 to 2009 the team averaged just over 10,000 fans, which is still in the top of the BSN . The team has sold out every home final game since their golden seasons 1970s, Making it the largest BSN franchise according to many commentators.
Rivalries
Some important rivalries during the team's history include (the teams who have been confronted in at least two finals.)
* The
Ponce Lions (late 1960s and mid 90s)
* The
Quebradillas Pirates
The Piratas de Quebradillas is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican basketball team, part of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional league. Founded in the mid 1920s, it is one of the original teams of the league. The club enjoyed its most successful era during ...
(from the early 1970s to the late 90s and again started in 2009 with a Dalmau joining Bayamon and both teams reaching the finals.)
* Río Piedras (1969 and 1971)
* Guaynabo Mets (early 1980s)
* Capitanes de Arecibo (2005, 2010 and 2018)
*
Vega Baja
Vega Baja (, ) is a town and municipality located on the coast of north central Puerto Rico. It is north of Morovis, east of Manatí, and west of Vega Alta. Vega Baja is spread over 13 barrios. The population of the municipality was 54,414 at t ...
(former team/1933-1934)
Radio
The flagship station for the Vaqueros is WIAC, 740 AM, the official flagship for the '09 season. The announcers are Ralph Pagán and Angel Pérez Moll. Transmissions are broadcast regionally through the local AM frequency and globally through the Internet. all games are broadcast live and games stats are provided in the transmission. Some other games are transmitted on WKAQ 580 (the official BSN flagship station for this season)
TV
The Vaqueros TV broadcasts are transmitted by BSN on live television, which broadcasts some of the games. Announcers are
Ernesto Diaz Gonzalez, Diego Marti and Leonel Arill. The transmission airs all of the selected games nationwide. The games can be seen on América CV Network (Channel 24), Direct TV (Channel 161).
These pre-selected broadcast are also re-transmitted to the USA throughout WAPA America channel. Games can also be seen throughout the Internet in mediasportstv (online live) or at the official team's webpage.
Championships
What follows is a detailed list of every championship:
![Bayamonflags](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Bayamonflags.png)
5: The Vaqueros have the record in the
BSN for most consecutive championships: 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975.
2: The team won their last two consecutive championships in the years: 1995 and 1996.
Runners-up
* The Vaqueros have been runners-up 8 times: 1930, 1934, 1970, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2016 and 2018
Team records
* The Vaqueros have the record in victories in a season with 28–1 (1972). The only defeat was against the
Cangrejeros de Santurce.
* Season played - 67.
* Games played and victory averages - 1643 / .611 .
* Games won in a season - 29 (1993) .
* Points in a game - Bayamón 143 v. Fajardo 121 (1978) .
* Victories and defeats - 1004- 639.
* Consecutive victories - 29 in two seasons.
* Greatest attendance to a game: 17,621 people on September 8, 1969.
* Post-seasons' classifications: 21 consecutive classifications to the Post-season.
* Rebounds in a game: 29 (
Lee Benson) 2008
References
External links
vaquerosahi.com- Rancho Cibernético de los Vaqueros en el BSN.
bsnpr.com- Official site of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN).
Vaqueros' Team History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaqueros De Bayamon
BSN teams
Basketball teams established in 1930
1930 establishments in Puerto Rico
Sports in Bayamón, Puerto Rico