The origin of the March Madness bracket is contested between a Staten Island bar and a Kentucky postal worker, each putting forth their claims.
Rewritten Article:
Title: Who Really Started College Basketball's Bracket Madness?Author: Dan Gelston, Associated Press
Share This ArticleNEW YORK (AP) - Let's settle this once and for all - where did the whole business of filling out NCAA Tournament brackets start? Certainly, not in every office pool, but there must've been a beginning somewhere, right?
One tale points to a humble Irish pub in Staten Island, New York, run by a "creative entrepreneur" whose idea of taking ten bucks to pick the Final Four and the national champion transformed the spot into a buzzing hotspot, where the day's special could potentially be a life-changing payout!
"We created a pool that just exploded over time," says current bar owner Terence Haggerty. "In hindsight, it's crazy how it all happened."
From Michael Jordan to Laettner's buzzer-beater, through word of mouth and a flurry of goodwill, the contest took off - so much so that the Staten Island pub, Jody's Club Forest, puts forth a claim (though it's not alone) as the bar that lit the fuse for the bracket's billion-dollar bonanza.
Haggerty's parents, Mary and Jody, opened the club in 1976. By the following basketball season, they'd hatched the notion of organizing a college basketball pool to boost their bar's business. The rules were straightforward: spend $10 to select the Final Four, the national champion, and total points for a tiebreaker in a winner-takes-all format. The tournament's initial field of 32 teams was dwarfed by the 88 total entries, with the winner bagging $880.
By the time Jody's Club ended the pool in 2006, it was under heat from authorities including the IRS and Sports Illustrated. The jackpot by then had swollen to an astounding $1.6 million for the winner!
"We never imagined where it would go," Terrance Haggerty says.
Another Contender
Every Cinderella story needs a spin, and Jody's Forest Club has earned its invite as a trailblazer in gambling-centered contests. However, in the heart of bourbon, basketball, and the Louisville Slugger, could the idea of predicting winners for every round have taken its first step in 1970s Kentucky?
Bob Stinson, a U.S. Postal Service worker who died in 2018 at 68, is suggested as an early originator. Stinson used the popularity of Derby betting slips and his recreational softball league bracket to cast his own bracket for the 1978 NCAA tournament.
"My dad thought it'd be fun to fill out brackets," says his son, Damon Stinson. "It was a touch of betting but not in a big way. It was more about testing basketball knowledge."
Stinson says his father sketched brackets with a ruler and blank paper, and the entry fee was nominal. Winners reveled more in bragging rights than a life-changing sum, though that was perfectly fine with Bob Stinson, who traveled for work and took his brackets everywhere during March!
"He was proud of it," Damon Stinson claims. "Instead of merely watching games, let's fill out a bracket. He self-promoted the venture. He was tech-savvy back in the day. So when Excel came out, the first thing he did was create a bracket on it. That's how it started to grow, and things got out of hand."
Damon Stinson remembers almost getting expelled from Catholic school for peddling brackets to fellow students for $10 each and being caught with $350 and numerous brackets in his backpack!
Who invented the first March Madness bracket pool remains uncertain, shrouded in the ethereal realms of urban myths. Was Stinson the true pioneer? That depends on who you ask!
Damon Stinson confirms his father believed he was the first.
"Absolutely, one hundred percent. Because my dad traveled for work, no one had seen what he was doing. He traveled a lot at the same time he was conjuring up the idea and spreading it. He truly believed," Stinson says.
Haggerty acknowledges there's no concrete proof for their bar being the first to run an organized pool. Yet, despite skepticism, Primo Driscoll - a long-time regular at Jody's Club and a past champion - keeps returning each March, clinking glasses, and reminiscing about his six-figure winnings in 2003!
[1] http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/bracket/2015/news/joint-march-madness-bills-legalize-sports-betting/index.html[2] www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/marchmadness/2016/03/12/march-madness-history/81874902/
The tradition of filling out NCAA Tournament brackets may have originated from a humble Irish pub in Staten Island, New York, where a "creative entrepreneur" started a sports-betting pool for the Final Four and national champion, turning the spot into a bustling hotspot. Alternatively, a U.S. Postal Service worker from Kentucky named Bob Stinson in the 1970s is proposed as an early originator, who used Derby betting slips and a recreational softball league bracket to create his own sports-betting bracket for the NCAA tournament.
