Throughout the NCAA Tournament’s history, underdogs, Cinderella stories, and upsets have captured the attention and imagination of fans.Making March Madnessis the story of this premiere tournament, from its early days in Kansas City, to its move to Madison Square Garden, to its surviving a point-shaving scandal in New York and taking its games to different sites across the country.Chad Carlson’s analysis places college basketball in historical context and connects it to larger issues in sport and American society, providing fresh insights on a host of topics that readers will find interesting, illuminating, and thought provoking.
“Chad Carlson’s entertaining and insightful story captures the drama of college basketball’s evolution from a regional sport to a national phenomenon. An essential read for sports historians and basketball fans.”
—Johnny Smith,author ofThe Sons of Westwood: John Wooden, UCLA, and the Dynasty That Changed College Basketball
“Informative and enjoyable … will be of use to scholars and aficionados alike.”
—Murry Nelson, author ofBig Ten Basketball, 1943–1972
“Those of us fortunate enough to teach courses on March Madness will appreciate Carlson’s masterful coverage of its origin story, and the foundation it provides for other readings on the evolution of the tournament such as Aram Goudsouzian’s King of the Court or Johnny Smith’s Sons of Westwood. But sport history and even business history courses could make use of a book that writes the unknown history of a very well-known topic. Although the density of the text may not be suitable for lower-level or underprepared college students, upper-level courses and graduate seminars will doubtless engender a lot of conversation if they choose to assign Making March Madness.”
—Andrew R.M. Smith,
![Making March Madness: The Early Years of the NCAA, NIT, and College Basketball Championships, 1922-1951 [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/2/8/9/2_5366889.jpg "Making March Madness: The Early Years of the NCAA, NIT, and College Basketball Championships, 1922-1951 [Hardcover]")