The origins of the March Madness bracket may be at a Staten Island pub

Whether you choose a fan favorite or go all in on a Cinderella story, creating the perfect March Madness bracket is now a yearly tradition.

Whether you choose a fan favorite or go all in on a Cinderella story, creating the perfect March Madness bracket is now a yearly tradition.

But before the days of online brackets and office pools — where did the original idea come from?

“A lot of people like to say that we started the brackets and stuff like that, which we’re pretty proud of,” said Terence Haggerty, owner of Jody’s Club Forest on Staten Island. “I’m not going to tell you it’s official that we were the ones who started it. My father just started a pool, and it just grew and grew, and the popularity of it was just astronomical.”

Haggerty’s dad, Jody, founded his Irish pub in 1976. A few months later, he came up with the idea to bet on the NCAA basketball championship. For $10, you picked the Final Four teams and the national champion.

Jody’s first pool, in 1977, had 88 entrants and a jackpot of $880. It quickly became the talk of the town. Haggerty says every March for 30 years, Jody’s Club and the surrounding streets were packed with people trying to get their picks in.

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/ncaa/origins-march-madness-bracket-may-staten-island-pub-rcna197236

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