Date:  Wed, 23 Mar 1994 11:53:18 CDT

From:  Randy Roberts <robertsr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]EXT.MISSOURI.EDU>

Subject: March Madness



Text item: Text_1



    Recently a query came my way about the origin/earliest usage of

   "March Madness" to refer to the NCAA basketball tournament. I have

   found one 1982 newspaper citation in the Peter Tamony Collection which

   uses it in this sentence: "Because what was once March Madness, the

   NCAA basketball tournament, has been replaced by Free Throw Fever." I

   also found one use of the phrase from the 1963 London Times in the

   Clarence Barnhart/Scott-Foresman Collection. "Now, I think it would

   be mid-summer or March madness for anyone to oppose collective

   security."  Does anyone have some information or earlier examples of

   March Madness in the basketball sense? Can anyone tell me if March

   madness is a Briticism or offer other insights? I believe I've

   checked the relevant published sources.

    Randy Roberts, Univ. of Missouri-Columbia

    robertsr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ext.missouri.edu