March Madness is officially underway! It’s one of the most popular sporting events in the country, but have you ever wondered why we call it March Madness?
It goes back to 1939, when an administrator with the Illinois High School Association, H.V. Porter, wrote an article called “March Madness” for the association’s magazine. He followed the article up with a poem in 1942 called “Basketball Ides of March” which included the line “A sharp-shooting mite is king tonight/the madness of March is running”. The use of “March Madness” increased, especially in the Midwest, but almost exclusively in reference to state high school tournaments. According to dictionary.com, the idea of “March Madness” has been around for a long time. It may have come from the unpredictable weather typical for March, or from the phrase “mad as a March hare”, which refers to male hare’s aggression during mating season. It starting being associated with the NCAA tournament in the 1980s, after CBS sportscaster Brent Musburger started using it during the annual tournament broadcasts.
Correctly filling out a March Madness bracket is next to impossible and it’s never been done – there are 9.22 quintillion unique combinations of winners in a 64-team bracket! The longest a bracket has stayed perfect is 49 games in 2019. Learn more in the audio below.