Alfreds Krauklis - a legend of Latvian basketball, an outstanding player of the Latvian men's basketball national team, coach, teacher and a model for young basketball players and coaches. Winner of the silver medal at the 1939 European Basketball Championship.

In 1958, in the VEF sports club, A. Krauklis was a co-author in the founding of the men's basketball team "VEF", being also the first coach of this team. Under the leadership of Krauklis, the Children and Youth Sports School - BJBS “VEF” was founded in 1961. Many young students from the basketball school also joined the VEF men's championship team. When Alfreds Krauklis passed away, the management and coaches of BJBS “VEF” announced to the entire Latvian basketball community that BJBS “VEF” would be named after him - Alfreds Krauklis VEF basketball school.

The first Alfreds Krauklis Memorial Basketball Tournament took place in November 1992. A total of 46 teams in 6 age groups of boys from 5 countries took part in it - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine and Russia. Over the last 5 years, the tournament has gradually expanded the number of participants with girls' teams, becoming one of the largest children's basketball tournaments in the Baltics. A record-breaking representation of foreign teams was recorded in the 28th commemorative tournament in 2019 - 97 teams from a total of 10 countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Turkey) took part in the tournament.  A record-breaking 161 teams participated In the 30th Anniversary tournament in 2022.