[Ads-l] FW: "March Madness" "Sweet Sixteen" and the like (UNCLASSIFIED)

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY FUTURES COMMAND (USA)]

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Big Dance
_Milwaukee Sentinel_ 20 Mar 1974 p 13 col 2

"[Bobby] Knight praised Marquette's discipline, too, admonished it to play its own game in Greensboro.  'When you get to the big dance,' he said, 'don't forget to dance a couple times with the babe that brung you.' "


Cinderella Team

Multiple mentions of "Cinderella team" in IA, KS basketball tournaments of 1938 in Newspaperarchive.com  Also, many mentions of "Cinderall team" in reference to college football between 1938 and 1944 in Newspaperarchive.com.

_Macon [GA] Telegraph_ 7 Mar 1938 p 6 col 1
"The Mercer Bears, Cinderella team of the Dixie Conference basketball tournament, will play Mississippi College, the only pre-tournament favorite left in the running, for championship honors here Monday night."



Elite Eight


_Muscatine [IA] Journal and News Tribune_ 12 Mar 1928 p 8 col 1
"Teachers college high earned the right to a place among the elite eight by trimming Aplington in the district 3 finals at Cedar Falls."
 

> ----
> 
> Last year I started a thread about this here.
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2018-March/151255.htm
> l
> 
> I recently posted a piece summarizing my findings on "March Madness", 
> "Sweet Sixteen," "Elite Eight", "Cinderella" teams and the "Big Dance."
> https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2019/03/sweet-elite-madness-alliterative.ht
> ml
> 
> I didn't find anything earlier than the 1927 "Sweet Sixteen" I 
> mentioned here last year, although I did find some new, early examples from 1928, also in Indiana.
> 
> I didn't find anything earlier than the 1931 example of "March 
> Madness" Barry Popik found previously.  I did, however, provide examples of earlier meanings of "March madness," including one common usage relating to bad weather.
> 
> The 1931 example appears to play off the weather-related usage.  Under 
> the headline, "March Madness," it refers to a number of recent upsets 
> in the tournament as "flurries".  It does not unambiguously refer to the tournament itself as "March madness," although the inspiration for the expression is clearly there.
> https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/march_madness
> 
> I haven't seen any other examples until 1937 when it becomes common, 
> and was used at that time in both Indiana and Michigan.  It might be older, but no examples in print other than the 1931 example.
> 
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