As you put you the final touches on your March Madness brackets this week (including NYC’s very own St. John’s Red Storm), we’re reminiscing about tournaments past and even the origin of the bracket?!
Did you have any idea that the beloved March Madness bracket craze, which has turned into a billionaire business potentially was birthed in Staten Island?
Well, according to some claims, March Madness brackets originally began at a bar in the West Brighton neighborhood of Staten Island called Jody’s Club Forest.
According to AP, bar owners Mary and Jody Haggerty opened up the Irish bar back in 1977, nudging patrons to wager $10 to predict the correct Final Four, National Champion, and tiebreaker score.
At the time of the 32 team tournament, the initial pool totaled 88 entries with $880 to the winner.
Over the years the pool only grew bigger and bigger, even reaching a whopping $1.6 million cash jackpot at one point until it had to be shut down in 2006.
Thanks to the media attention and size in which the bracket contest grew, the IRS eventually had to step in…which ended up in Haggerty pleading to tax-evasion charges and nixing the beloved March tradition once and for all.
Kentucky’s alternative claim
While we’re always partial to NYC claims, we must acknowledge a competing claim from a Kentucky postal worker’s family, who say that their father started a similar bracket for the 1978 NCAA Tournament according to AP.
That claim goes as told that Kentucky native Bob Stinson created his own 1978 NCAA Tournament bracket based on an idea from his recreational softball league bracket.
AP’s report mentions Stinson traveled around the country for work during the tournament, bringing his sketched out brackets along the way for people to play along. Small fees were common and he apparently even got thrown out of Catholic school for putting a $10 price on brackets with his classmates.
March Madness bracket today
While the dispute still continues into present day, we can’t help but thank whoever decided to create the beloved March Madness bracket!
This year’s 2025 NCAA March Madness tournament will once again welcome millions, if not billions, of bracket entries in attempt for perfection.
An Associated Press poll even documented that 25% of Americans will fill out a bracket this year…that’s roughly about 85 million people.
Not to mention the odds of a perfect bracket as 1 in 9.2 quintillion.