Who invented the March Madness Bracket? Family of former Kentucky postal worker stake their claim
The family of late U.S. postal service worker Bob Stinson says he created the first March Madness bracket
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WTVQ) — The buzzer beaters. The Cinderella stories. The loveable underdogs. It’s all part of the phenomenon that’s become known as March Madness. However, the biggest thrill arguably comes from watching the NCAA Tournament through the excitement — and oftentimes, anguish — of your bracket.
As it turns out, the Commonwealth of Kentucky may be where it all started.
“He was a true Renaissance man. Good at everything he did,” says Lenny Wolz, the son of Bob Stinson. “He was a good athlete. Extremely intelligent.”
Affectionately known as “Bob-O,” Stinson — a former U.S. postal service worker — passed away in 2018. Among the memories he left behind — a claim to creating the very first NCAA Tournament bracket pool
“So we were always active in sports, and we played a lot of softball,” explains his wife, Debby Stinson. “He noticed the brackets that they did for the single elimination tournaments. So when the NCAA Tournament came along in the ’70s, and I think they had expanded to 32 teams, he thought, ‘Well, you know, I could draw out a bracket for the tournament, and everybody’d just fill in their teams and it would be exciting, and then maybe we could put up a little money.’ So, that’s how it was born.”
Debby says her Bob used a ruler and paper to sketch out the brackets by hand, requiring only a small entry fee. Bob, who traveled the country for his job, brought brackets with him everywhere he’d go each March.
“We just did it for fun, and lo and behold, now it’s the thing to do for March Madness,” says Debby.
“Every year since i could remember, around tournament time, he would always remind me how rich we would be if we would’ve gotten two cents for every bracket that was filled out,” says Wolz, laughingly. “So, he always wanted royalties on it, but it was just too late for that.”
While there always seems to be a Kentucky contender when it comes to March Madness, a bar owner in Staten Island, New York — Terence Haggarty — claims his father was the true originator of the NCAA Tournament bracket back in 1977.
“From what I was told a million times from my father before he passed, was they were just hanging one day and they would like to come up with some things to get business,” explains Haggarty.
He says it initially started with just 88 people paying ten dollars per ticket to guess the Final Four. By its final year in 2006, the winning jackpot had reportedly reach $1.6 million in 2006.
“You know, they claim it was the Final Four,” responds Wolz. “I know that we had the first 32, and actually drew the brackets out.”
While it may be impossible to determine the true originator of the bracket pool, Holz says his father has as good a claim as anyone.
“I’m not gonna say they stole the idea, but maybe they ran with it up there,” says Holz. “When you think of Kentucky, you think of bourbon, basketball and horses. So its rightful place as the start has to be Louisville, Kentucky.”
