History of March Madness
NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Major Event in College Sports
A brief history of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, commonly referred to as "March Madness."
It's about that time of year when NCAA Men's Basketball fans prepare to fill out tournament brackets for the March Madness 64-team tournament. Yet, the history of the tournament is often overlooked and the term "March Madness" was surprisingly coined from a high school boys basketball tournament in Illinois.
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) sponsored a high school boys basketball tournament that was begun in 1908. By the 1930s, the tournament grew to a statewide event with over 900 schools competing. It was Henry V. Porter, assistant executive secretary of the IHSA, who came up with the popular term. In 1939, he wrote an essay about the popular tournament and titled it "March Madness." The name stuck and by the mid-1970s, the IHSA started using the term on its merchandise. [Source: Sportbet.com]
Meanwhile in the 1930s, college basketball became more popular and many desired to see some sort of tournament to determine the best team in the country. A group of New York writers established the first National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in 1938. A year later, NCAA created its own tournament.
It wasn't until the early-to-mid-1950s when the NCAA tournament started pulling away from the NIT tournament as the prime college basketball tournament. The popularity of the tournament was finally starting to increase at the national level and it expanded to 16 teams. In 1954, the championship game between LaSalle and Bradley (LaSalle won, 94-76) was televised for the first time. In 1975, the tournament was expanded to 32 teams. By the early 80s, the NCAA tournament was by far considered the more superior basketball tournament for college basketball.
It wasn't until 1985, however, when it was expanded to 64 teams as it is today. This enabled more colleges across the nation to be involved, and further increased the nationwide excitement surrounding the tournament. [Source: DOCsports.com]
In its current state, the 64 teams are split into four sub-brackets (16 teams in each). In the first round of the tournament, the 1st seed of each sub bracket squares off against the 16 seed; the 2nd seed faces the 15 seed; the 3 seed faces the 14 seed; and so on down. When the bracket is cut to 16 teams, they are cleverly regarded as the "Sweet Sixteen". The top eight teams are dubbed the "Elite Eight" and the final four teams are appropriately called the "Final Four."
Get a free printable March Madness bracket, and check out important tournament dates.
Sources consulted:
- "History of March Madness", Sportbet.com, Accessed on 13 March, 2008.
- "March Madness History", DOSsports.com, Accessed on 13 March, 2008.
