The NJCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship
is held annually in March at the Hutchinson
Sports Arena. The first official NJCAA National
Championship was in 1948 in Springfield, MO.
The event moved to Hutch in 1949, and has been
here ever since.
Every year the Hutchinson Sports Arena plays
host to the best men’s junior college basketball
teams in the country. Basketball fans from around
the country travel the ‘Road to Hutch’ each year
and this long-standing event, known widely as
‘The Tournament’, has helped make Hutchinson a
sports destination. It consistently features players
who go on to play at the major college level, and
attracts some of the nation’s top college coaches
to town for recruiting.
“The Tournament” features the top 24 teams in
Division I men’s basketball of the NJCAA. The
single-elimination seeded bracket is comprised of
16 District Champions and eight at-large selections.
The top eight seeds receive first-round
Every summer the small town of Pretty Prairie hosts a four-day event, attended by
thousands of rodeo fans from all over the world. The rodeo, sanctioned by the
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), is known as Kansas’ Largest Night
Rodeo. The first two nights are considered family nights at the rodeo with free
admission for children 12 and under.
T U R N T H E PAG E F O R A D D I T I O N A L A R E A E V E N T S 15
July 15-18 | pprodeo.com
Heritage Day
4th Saturday in August
yoderkansas.com
Several thousand people
flock to the small
community of Yoder
to celebrate Yoder
Heritage Day. Visitors
and locals are entertained
by tractor pulls,
horse-drawn events
and the annual parade
down Main Street, quilt
auction, buggy races,
great food and entertainment.
NJCAA DI Men’s
Basketball Championship
March 16-21 | njcaahutchtourney.com
EVENTS
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/yoderkansas.com
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