The Big Dance

[Anna M Fellegy]

I'm entering this brief discussion late in the game but, for what it's
worth, the NCAA's Final Four basketball tournament is also called "the Big
Dance"--the last three turns on the floor of March Madness.


On Mon, 11 Oct 1999, GEORGE THOMPSON wrote:

> This Sunday's Daily News printed a letter from Jav Merced, one of the
> Plain People of New York whose letters enliven that paper.  He
> predicts "The Yankees should be able to make it to the Big Dance and
> win it."  This refers to the World Series.  Later that day, I heard
> D. Wayne Lucas, the trainer of race horses, say, in a television
> interview during a broadcast of the featured races at Belmont, that
> if his horse ran commendably he would send her to the Big Dance,
> referring to the Breeders' Cup races this November at a track in
> Louisiana.
>
> This is a term I do not remember encountering before.  Are the
> horsemen borrowing it from baseball, or is baseball borrowing it from
> racing?
>
> GAT
>