As March Madness kicks off Tuesday night, a discussion has resurfaced regarding the origins of the first betting pool for the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. Jody’s Club Forest, a bar and grill located on Staten Island in New York, asserts that they were the pioneers of the tournament brackets that are now completed by countless Americans in workplace betting pools. However, a former U.S. Postal Service employee from Kentucky, who passed away in 2018, also lays claim to being the founder of bracketology.
Terence Haggerty, the proprietor of Jody’s Club Forest in the Wet Brighton neighborhood of Staten Island, mentioned that his father, Joseph “Jody” Haggerty, initially introduced tournament brackets for customers to fill out in 1977. According to Haggerty, his father, a former high school basketball coach who, along with his wife Mary, opened Jody’s Club Forest in 1976, was a creative individual always seeking new ways to attract business. The first brackets drew in 88 participants who each paid $10 to join the pool.
The concept quickly gained popularity, and by 2006, when the bar ran its final bracket competition, the prize money had soared to $1.6 million. Entries came in from local officials and even individuals from overseas, including during the Iraq War.
Contrastingly, Damon Stinson asserts that his father, Bob Stinson, a postal worker, was the true creator of the NCAA basketball tournament brackets in 1978, inspired by his recreational softball league bracket. Stinson stated that his father saw it as a fun activity to fill out the brackets, more as a friendly competition to test one’s knowledge of college basketball.
The yearly tournament featuring 68 college teams is scheduled to commence Tuesday evening with Saint Francis from Pennsylvania facing off against Alabama State in Dayton, Ohio. The defending champions, the University of Connecticut Huskies, will begin their quest for a third consecutive title against the University of Oklahoma on Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina. UConn is seeded eighth in the West Region bracket, with top seeds in the four regions held by Auburn University, Duke University, the University of Houston, and the University of Florida.
The national championship game is slated for April 7 in San Antonio, Texas as the excitement of March Madness reignites the age-old debate over the origins of basketball tournament brackets.
