"March Madness" in the Times

[Laurence Horn]

Richard Sandomir, the sports media columnist, has a column in today's
Times on the history of "March Madness" as applied to the NCAA men's
basketball tournament (and earlier tournaments) at
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/25/sports/ncaabasketball/25tv.html?

...
There was no promotional strategy behind using March Madness to
market the tournament. It just happened, and has stuck since 1982,
CBS's first year in the madhouse. Kevin O'Malley, a former CBS Sports
executive, recalled hearing the words for the first time one night
early in the tournament.

"Brent Musburger used it," said O'Malley, an industry consultant.
"Around that time, some people used the phrase in print. Maybe some
Midwestern writers used it, but it really blossomed when the
tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985."

But March Madness, as a basketball term, had been used well before
Musburger said it, by the Illinois High School Association. The group
began running a boys basketball tournament in 1908, and in 1939, its
assistant executive secretary, Henry V. Porter, wrote an essay
suggesting that a "little March madness may complement and contribute
to sanity and help keep society on an even keel."
...