Bayamón Cowboys (basketball)
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The Bayamón Cowboys —or Vaqueros de Bayamón in Spanish— are a BSN basketball team based in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.
The Cowboys are one of the greatest teams in the BSN's history, They are tied with the Atleticos de San German, for the most championships won, with 13 each. They are one of the few original teams left, having played non-stop since 1933.
The Cowboys' golden age was during the early 1970s. With such players like Ruben Rodriguez, Ruben Montañez, Alberto Zamot, Tito Ortiz, Billy Baun, Luis Brignoni and Neftali Rivera on their line-up, the Cowboys won five championships in a row, a BSN record that still stands. Rodriguez played his entire career (23 years) with the Cowboys.
In 1981, they won another championship, but championships during the 1980s wouldn't come that easy. Although another legendary player, Jerome Mincy, joined them, the Cowboys had to wait seven years, until 1988, to win another championship. During the 1990s, the Cowboys added one more championship.
During the 1980s, the Cowboys also had Roberto Valderas, Pipo Marrero and Jimmy Ferrer, among others, as part of their team.
The Cowboys were down three games to nothing against the Arecibo Captains in the 2002 semi-finals, but they became the first team in Puerto Rican basketball history to win a 7 game series after being down three games to none. Faced with a similar situation against the Ponce Lions in the finals, the Cowboys came back to force a seventh game, but this time they lost by a score of 102-81.
The Cowboys were again defeated in the 2005 finals when they were swept by the Arecibo Captains (Capitanes de Arecibo in Spanish).
The Cowboys official sponsor has been Goya Foods for a very long time now.
