[Ads-l] Barry Popik's Antedating of "March Madness" (Basketball Tournament)

[Shapiro, Fred]

Barry Popik has added another one to his amazingly long list of important antedatings of words and phrases.  This is from an article he found in Newspapers.com,  referring to a basketball tournament (Indiana high schools) as "March madness."  That term is now very famous as the nickname of the NCAA college basketball tournament (the NCAA and the Indiana high school association reached an agreement allowing both of them to use it).  Before Barry's research, 1939 was widely claimed to be the date of the term's origin.


March Madness (OED, b., 1931)

1930 Indianapolis Star 16 Feb. 16/1

This thing of basketball has got to be in Indiana a matter of more than a few hoops, backboards and a floor.  It's a major state industry — and a state obsession with its peak of March madness in the state high school tournament and companion meets.


Fred Shapiro




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