The annual tournament of high school boys basketball teams, sponsored by the Illinois High School Association, grew from a small invitational affair in to a statewide institution with over schools competing by the late 's. A field of teams known as the "Sweet Sixteen" routinely drew sellout crowds to the University of Illinois' Huff Gymnasium. In a time before television, before the college game became popular with the average fan, before professional leagues had established a foothold in the nation's large cities, basketball fever had already reached epidemic proportions in the Land of Lincoln.
Henry V. Porter, assistant executive secretary of the Illinois High School Association, was so impressed by the phenomenon that he wrote an essay to commemorate it. The term struck a chord with newspapermen, who used it throughout their pages. During the tournament's "Golden Era" of the 's and 's, "March Madness" became the popular name of the event. It was an era of some of Illinois' most legendary teams, including the undefeated Taylorville squad and Mt.
Vernon's unstoppable back-to-back champions of and But the one champion remembered more than any other is tiny Hebron, a school of only 98 students, which won the tournament in The IHSA tournaments continued to grow and develop.
In , the tournament moved to the huge new Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois and fans witnessed the most famous finish in history, when Chicago Carver beat Centralia on a last-second shot by a substitute named Anthony Smedley. Beginning in , the IHSA began using the term officially in its programs and on its merchandise. In , the organization enlisted veteran Chicago sportswriter and Big Ten basketball referee Jim Enright to write the official history of the boys basketball tournament.
Both the book and video were sold nationwide. Today's March Madness is different from the original version. Nowadays an "Elite Eight" of teams advances to the state finals, but there are eight tournaments — Class 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A versions, from the smallest schools to the largest, for both boys and girls, played in Peoria and Normal.
And starting in , the "March Madness Experience," an exhibition hall full of fun, games, and good times, has allowed fans of Illinois high school basketball to join in the action. The popularity of these events now allows the IHSA to provide more than just good entertainment for its fans. A significant portion of the fees generated from the licensing of the unified marks "March Madness" and "America's Original March Madness" are used to fund college scholarships for Illinois high school boys and girls.
It was coined by Henry V. Porter, who started his career as a teacher and coach at Athens High School in central Illinois. In , Porter led the Athens boys basketball team to a second-place finish in the state tournament.
He later served as assistant executive secretary of the Illinois High School Athletic Association from to and executive secretary of the National Federation of State High School Associations from to Soon thereafter the nation was plunged into World War II. The drama of March Madness provided a unifying force that brought the entire state together, and Porter again commemorated the event, this time with a poem, "Basketball Ides of March," which appeared in the Illinois Interscholastic in March of Homo of the Hardwood Court is a hardy specie.
There are millions of him. He exists through summer and fall, shows signs of animation through the winter and lives to the utmost during March when a hundred thousand pairs of rubber soled shoes slap the hardwood in a whirlwind of stops and pivots and dashes on the trail to the state basketball championships.
Porter referred to the original eight-team tournament by that moniker. Musburger claims that he got the term from car dealership commercials he saw while broadcasting the Illinois state high school basketball tournament. He started using it during those games and eventually brought it over to CBS.
ET when the play-in games begin. These games, known as the "First Four" are a series of play-in games that have been held since The eight teams in those contests will compete for four spots in the official team field.
From there, first and second-round tournament play will run from Friday, March 19 to Monday, March The second weekend of play, consisting of the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight matchups, will run from Saturday, March 27 to Tuesday, March ET on Monday, April 5. All in all, that amounts to about two-and-a-half weeks of top-tier college basketball action. ET during a two-hour selection show on CBS.
That day, known as "Selection Sunday", will set the bracket matchups for the first-round matchups. Once those matchups are set, brackets with all the first-round matchups filled in will be readily available to print out. If you can't wait that long to get your bracket, there are blank brackets available that can be printed at any time.
The expression March mad , which may be a shortening of the aphorism, emerged shortly thereafter in the early s. Feedback We've Added New Words! Word of the Day. Meanings Meanings. Next You're In Luck! Why does March Madness refer to basketball? What is bracketology? Where does bracketology come from? What else does March Madness mean?
0コメント