Mario Morales Micheo 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 Evansville Purple Aces women's volleyball coach Fernando Morales Lopez. And he also played for the Villanova Wildcats Men's Basketball team in 1975–76 season where he averaged 4.7 points and 1.5 rebounds and Villanova went 16–11.
Sports in Puerto Rico can be traced from the ceremonial competitions amongst the pre-Columbian Native Americans of the Arawak (Taíno) tribes who inhabited the island to the modern era in which sports activities consist of an organized physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose for competition. One of the sports which the Taíno's played was a ball game called "Batey". The "Batey" was played in "U" shaped fields two teams; however, unlike the ball games of the modern era, the winners were treated like heroes and the losers were sacrificed.
The Puerto Rico national basketball team represents Puerto Rico in men's international basketball competitions, it is governed by the Puerto Rican Basketball Federation, The team represents both FIBA and FIBA Americas.
Rolando Hourruitiner is a business professional and entrepreneur; focusing mainly in sports & entertainment, media, digital, mobile and hospitality. Hourruitiner is a former basketball player, coach and sports agent with extensive international exposure. He has also been featured as a basketball TV commentator and analyst in Puerto Rico.
Fernando J. Canales is a former freestyle swimmer from Puerto Rico and swimming coach. Up until the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he was the head assistant coach for men's swimming & diving at his alma mater, The University of Michigan, and also for the USA National Championship Team, Club Wolverine, home for numerous Olympic champions and medalists. He is a member of the USA Swimming's International Relations Committee as well as the United States' technical representative for the Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas (ASUA/UANA). He is an assistant director of development for The University of Michigan Athletic Department. He then was the head coach at Colgate University. In his first season at Colgate, the women's team took home the 2011 Patriot League Championship, and the men's team finished the meet in fifth place. In 2016 he coached his home country Puerto Rico at the Olympics in Rio. Currently he is the head coach for Pitchfork Aquatics and Puerto Rico.
The men's pole vault was one of four men's jumping events on the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo. Qualification was held on 15 October 1964, with the final on 17 October. 32 athletes from 20 nations entered, with 2 not starting in the qualification round. The final lasted over seven hours, to date the longest competition in history. All finalists qualified at 4.60, however in the final five were unable to achieve the height again.
Puerto Rico competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Ten competitors, all men, took part in nine events in two sports.
Puerto Rico competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. 27 competitors, 26 men and 1 woman, took part in 13 events in 6 sports.
Puerto Rico competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. 32 competitors, 30 men and 2 women, took part in 29 events in 8 sports. The Games were hosted from 11 to 24 October.
Juan Báez , also known as "Johnny" and "El Indio de la Vía", was a Puerto Rican basketball player. He played from 1953 to 1969 in Puerto Rico's Superior Basketball League and from 1957 to 1961 with the Real Madrid basketball Spanish basketball team in Europe. In 1957, Báez was named the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) and points leader. In 2007, Báez was awarded Puerto Rico's top sports award, the Puerto Rico Olympic Medal of Honor. Báez was also inducted into Puerto Rico's Sports Hall of Fame.
Teófilo "Teo" Cruz Downs was a Puerto Rican professional basketball player. After playing college basketball, Cruz played in Puerto Rico's top-level league, the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) with Cangrejeros de Santurce, Indios de Canóvanas, Mets de Guaynabo, Cardenales de Río Piedras, and Taínos de Mayagüez. Cruz also played in Spain with Picadero Damm, and in Belgium with Racing Club Mechelen.
Puerto Rico competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics which was held in Beijing, People's Republic of China from August 8 to August 24, 2008. The American territory with a population of four million people qualified 22 athletes in eight different sports. The appearance of the Puerto Rican delegation at the Beijing Olympics marked the commonwealth's sixteenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics, and its twenty-second appearance at any Olympic Games, since its debut at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. Of its competitors participating in events that involve progression by heats, six athletes advanced at least one round in their events, and two advanced at least two rounds, with Asunción Ocasio almost medaling bronze in taekwondo. However, there were no Puerto Rican medalists at the Beijing Olympics. McWilliams Arroyo, a boxer, bore Puerto Rico's flag at the ceremonies.
Edgardo "Edgar" Díaz Díaz is a former pole vaulter from Puerto Rico. He competed for his native country in two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1992. He is also a two-time gold medalist at the Central American and Caribbean Games of 1993 and 1998.
Angelo "Monchito" Cruz is a former Puerto Rican professional basketball player. He was born in New York. Coming out of the Patterson Projects in the Bronx, "Monchito" was a New York City Playground legend by the time he finished High School at DeWitt Clinton High School; he first played 2 or 3 years at All Hallows High, both in the Bronx. After playing at Bethany Nazarene College (Oklahoma) and Essex County College, he moved on to play professionally in Puerto Rico.
Heriberto Cruz is a Puerto Rican former hurdler who competed in the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Jaime Annexy Fajardo was a Puerto Rican hammer thrower who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics. Jaime Annexy Fajardo served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War, lived in Puerto Rico after college until 1977, settled in Florida, and established Eureka Insurance Brokers. Jaime Annexy Fajardo was buried at the Puerto Rico Memorial Cemetery in Carolina, Puerto Rico.
José Barbosa was a Puerto Rican pole vaulter who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics.
José Vicente was a Puerto Rican pole vaulter who won gold at the 1946 Central American and Caribbean Games, and competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics and in the 1952 Summer Olympics.
Fernando Luis Báez Cruz is a Puerto Rican male former weightlifter, who competed in the 56 kg category and represented Puerto Rico at international competitions. He won the bronze medal in the press at the 1969 World Weightlifting Championships lifting 115.0 kg. He participated at the 1972 Summer Olympics in the 56 kg event. He set four bantamweight press world records.
James Michael Curran was an athletics coach who trained and coached five Olympic gold medalists. From 1900-1902, he fought with the Highland Light Infantry in the Second Boer War, serving much of that time under Major General Sir Hector MacDonald.
