NCAA Basketball Tournament Tickets ...

The History of March Madness

NCAA March Madness. No other phrase in American sports can capture the heart, mind and soul of college basketball fans around the nation. But the first NCAA Division I men's college basketball tournament, held in 1939, was a considerably smaller affair. Oregon won that national championship, defeating Ohio State in the final game in Evanston, Ill.

Since those early years, the tournament has grown from a secondary competition behind the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) into the Big Dance that fans have come to know, love, and follow with passion. While Kentucky leads all schools in tournament appearances and games won in the tournament, the dominant UCLA Bruins, thanks to the leadership of the legendary John Wooden, have a chokehold on the number of national championships won (11).

March Madness also has its share of Cinderella stories, most recently George Mason's improbable run to the Final Four. From 13th-seeded Princeton's historic upset of defending national champion UCLA in 1996, to the 1983 North Carolina State Wolfpack’s last-second heroics against Houston's "Phi Slamma Jamma," to the great run of Texas Western (now Texas-El Paso) in 1966, the NCAA men's basketball tournament is filled with great tales in its storied past.