![]() But the official NCAA story is that “Final Four” was coined by a Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter, Ed Chay. There are some high-school basketball purists who insist that the phrase “Final Four” was first used in connection with Indiana’s legendary annual tournament (which inspired the film Hoosiers). Where is Wofford? Guess the locations of 5 March Madness schools Did the “Final Four” come from there too? ![]() During the tournament’s “Golden Era” of the 1940’s and 1950’s, “March Madness” became the popular name of the event. The term struck a chord with newspapermen, who used it throughout their pages. Entitled “March Madness,” it first appeared in the Illinois Interscholastic, the IHSA’s magazine, in 1939. Porter, assistant executive secretary of the Illinois High School Association, was so impressed by the phenomenon that he wrote an essay to commemorate it. It did! This IHSA post breaks it down: A high school “Sweet Sixteen” tournament was held in Illinois in the 1930s, and thanks to poetry (!), we now have the term: March Madness Athletic Association? Does that mean March Madness came from Illinois too? The trademark rights are now held by the March Madness Athletic Association, a joint venture between the NCAA and IHSA formed in 1996. In 1956, the field was reduced from 16 teams to eight, and the phrase “Elite Eight” was born. “Elite Eight” was originally coined by the Illinois High School Boys Basketball Championship, the single-elimination tournament run by the Illinois High School Association. It was another high school tournament that had the nickname first, according to : March Madness fans roasted the NCAA's anti-gambling message How about the Elite Eight? Perhaps mindful of the March Madness precedent, however, the KHSAA chose to bargain with the NCAA rather than litigate. Unfortunately for the NCAA, the phrase (using both “16” and “Sixteen”) was trademarked by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association in 1988, as a handle for its annual championship tournament. This Slate article from 2004 broke it down:ĬBS commentators started using the phrase in the late 1980s, after the tournament field expanded from 53 to 64 teams. ![]() Wait, did you watch My Super Sweet 16 too? Stay on topic, please. Why the Sweet 16? I assume it’s because that’s what birthdays for 16-year-olds are called. As always, we’re here to help with a breakdown of the origin stories we found for those terms we throw around every year. You may be watching the 2019 NCAA tournament and suddenly sit up on your couch and say, “Wait, why DO they call it the Sweet 16? Or Elite Eight? And what about the Final Four, which totally makes sense but I probably wouldn’t have thought of it unless it existed? ![]() Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. ![]()
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