How did 'March Madness' get its name?


"March Madness" was originally coined after a high school basketball tournament in Illinois dating back to 1908. Henry V. Porter wrote an essay titled "March Madness" in the Illinois Interscholastic in 1939 to commemorate the tournament. Other media outlets embraced the term as the tournament continued to sell out and thrive for decades. Brent Musburger, a former sportswriter from Chicago, brought the term "March Madness" to the NCAA tournament when covering the event for CBS in 1982. The phrase became synonymous with the tournament ever since. In 2010, the NCAA made it official and paid IHSA (The Illinois High School Association) $17.2M for the rights to the phrase, and began using the trademark in marketing materials, logos and other branding material. While only used for the men's tournament for decades, the NCAA only began using the phrase "March Madness" for the women's tournament in 2022.