A common question asked by college basketball fans is who coined the phrase March Madness? A little known fact with hoops fans, is that the term was first used to describe the Illinois High School Association basketball tournament and is attributed to Henry V. Porter. Mr. Porter used the phrase in a 1939 article for the Illinois Interscholastic Magazine titled, “March Madness” to capture the spirit of the boys and girl’s tournaments. The rights to the term are co-owned today by the NCAA and the IHSA through the March Madness Athletic Association.
When Did March Madness Start Being Used for the NCAA Tournament?
The term March Madness would not be used to describe the NCAA basketball tournament until 1982. Brent Musburger from CBS is credited with the first use of the term during a TV broadcast of a tournament game. Of note, is that Musburger likely picked up the term while working for a number of years in Chicago prior to joining the CBS team. Fast forward to the 1990’s, and the NCAA and IHSA both finally looked into trademarking the term. Unfortunately, Intersport had beaten both organizations to registering the term. Move forward again to 1996, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that both the IHSA and NCAA could use the new “Dual Use Trademark.” The NCAA and IHSA then created the March Madness Athletics Associate to coordinate trademark licensing and potential trademark infringement. Later in the 2000’s, the NCAA settled with Intersport paying $17.2 million for the company’s license to use the trademark and the IHSA relinquished its ownership share in the trademark but retained the right to continue using to describe the state’s high school championships.
When Did H.V. Porter Use the March Madness Term?
H.V. Porter first used the term March Madness in an essay self-titled “March Madness” in 1939. He then used the phrase in a subsequent poem published in 1942 titled, “Basketball Ides of March.” During this timeframe the term spread throughout the Midwest to describe high school basketball tournaments in Indiana, Illinois, and other states in the Midwest. Jim Enright would go on to publish a book in 1977 about the Illinois State High School Basketball tournament called, March Madness. The final stanza of Porter’s “Basketball Ides of March” ends with the following:
With war nerves tense, the final defense
Is the courage, strength and will
In a million lives where freedom thrives
And liberty lingers still.
Now eagles fly and heroes die
Beneath some foreign arch
Let their sons tread where hate is dead
In a happy Madness of March.
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