March Madness Trivia & Fun Facts

The phrase “March Madness” was coined by Henry V. Porter in 1939 to describe an Illinois high school basketball tourney. Brent Musburger first used it during NCAA coverage in 1982 causing a legal battle almost as insane as the playoffs.

But everyone finally worked things out and the madness was official. There isn't a good record of who first called the playoffs "The Big Dance", but it does describe the action.

The 6 schools who have the winningest history in NCAA Division I Men's basketball are:

• UCLAwith 11 championships;
• Kentucky who won the March Madness games 7 times;
• Indiana with 5 Big Dance victories;
• North Carolinaoutlasted all the other teams 4 times, including their championship win in 2005, and
• Dukeand Kansaswith 3 titles each.
• There are 8 teams that won twiceand others who are trying to reach that goal this year...

Although past history is no guarantee in this Cinderella laced NCAA tournament, number one seeds have won every time in the first round for the past 16 years and number two seeds have only lost three first round games... a 95% win average.

What makes the brackets exciting are the number 13 and 14 seeds who came out winners in the first round 20 times since 1992... a sweet 16% that leads to dreams of glory. Watch for them in your brackets. Look for teams from smaller conferences or those who had a bad start to the season, but got their game on during the last weeks to pull off an invitation. A power player on a slump or injury roster who recovers can mean a lower seed for a solid team.