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March Madness is about to hit us. My neighbor has put up the flag he keeps neatly folded during the rest of the year. “Todd, it may snow!” I shout. “NCAA’s just a week away!” he shouts back. I’ll have to avoid seeing him for the next few weeks. He will talk of nothing else, though he graduated a decade ago.
Nothing grips the nation’s sports psyche like the National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. Starting in the first week of March, the tournament goes on till the first week of April when a college is crowned champion in each category. I don’t know if there is another country with such a college level sports tradition. This is truly an all-American phenomenon.
It’s amazing how these March weeks generate animated debates about the merits and demerits of college sports departments, the caliber of teams, the rise of young turks among the students and the prospects of favorites. Watching otherwise balanced American families going into a fever of fan frenzy is a sport in itself.
Some 65 teams in all! That’s an impressive number! And every match guranteed to send you on an edge-of-the-seat high! You hang on, rooting for your team, not giving up till the last buzzer sounds. Then you watch the ecstasy of winning and the agony of having to pack and go home.
Why “March Madness”?
Today, the term is synonymous with the NCAA Basketball Tournament, but it was earlier used to describe another – the annual Illinois High School Association tournament. Henry V. Porter is credited with coining the phrase in his 1939 article for the Illinois Interscholastic magazine, “March Madness.”
In 1982, Brent Musburger, a CBS reporter, used the term during the telecast of a tournament game. Fans and the media caught on, and have been using the term ever since. The ownership of the term was actually decided after a court battle. “March Madness” the phrase that we use so frequently now is co-owned by the NCAA and IHSA.
Want more on this? Go to MarchMadness.org For a spin off on the theme, check out classof1.com
