I look forward to March Madness every year! And this year has been even more special for my family. The things that are happening in our world today gives us sadness and anger at times. A basketball event like this, where we fill out brackets, and enjoy our company, gives us something to live for and still have room to smile about more positive things -- positive things like family and participation.
For some of you that might not know what NCAA March Madness is, well, here's a little bit of a description. The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, is known as March Madness. The tourney is a 68-team (includes play-in games) single-elimination event played during March at the end of the college-basketball-regular season. It is a United States event. The tournament determines what team will become the national champion. People all over the country fill out the brackets to predict the winners each round leading to the final game.
My memory goes back to when I was an entry-level software engineer back in 1986. I was working with an agency in downtown Salem, Oregon. Out of all the places I worked, it was probably the place that I truly felt like belonging to a work family -- fun times!
At CSD (Children Services Division), there were two employees that went around and asked others to fill out the March Madness brackets. They were giving prizes to the winners at the end. I immediately filled out one and turned it in. They posted everyone's bracket on this big wall on Thursday morning before the tourney started. After every round, the participants would go check their score, and also who was leading. First-round-game winners received a +1 for each game won, second-round received a +2 and so on.
Talk about an employee uplift on morale and workers being more productive while they participated in this fun event -- it was remarkable. I naturally fell in love with this event. There was a lady that I worked with, her name was, Penny. She picked Ball State, a team that was extremely low-seeded. Ball State was playing an extremely high-seeded team. On Friday morning everyone learned that Ball State had won, it was a huge upset and the entire office was asking Penny why she picked Ball State. Penny didn't really know much about basketball and her answer was, "Well, with a name like Ball State, I figured they could really play ball, so I picked them." Ball State became a Cinderella team and made it to the sweet sixteen that year -- March Madness!
Through this event, people made connections with each other and the employee morale grew every year. I learned so many things while working during my day-job days. Soon in the 1980s I decided to create a March Madness event for my immediate family — my wife and my two boys. We were having fun and I put up the prize money for just us. First, second, and third place. I have continued this tradition to the present day.
Now my two boys have kids and we have grandkids. We have a total of 10 participants. My wife and I put up the prize money. This year it's $100 for first place, $50 for second, $25 for third, and we tossed in $25 for the most losses. However, you really don't need to have prize money to enjoy this fun event. Maybe just take the winner out to a nice dinner or something. Whatever fits in your budget works.
Me, my two boys, and grandkids - wives not pictured. Other grand kids not pictured.
The last time there was a March Madness (pre-Covid), our Grandson Tyson won the whole thing! So you see, anyone can win. No one can predict the upsets. Some of my family members have a system. For example, my wife sometimes picks a winning team based on mascot names, or team colors. This year, depending on seeding, she is picking what team has the most students attending their college?
I spend a lot of time coordinating and organizing the event. I definitely have to remind a few kids to get their brackets and fill them out. They send me a photo of the completed bracket so I can print it out before Thursday morning. After every round I add up the scores and send a text with the running results. There are many lead changes as the tournament progresses from the first round to the sweet sixteen, to the elite eight and so on. My efforts are all worth it, because there is no price you can put on fun entertainment using the sport we love and the family we love.
Me and my wife, Loni, in our backyard.
I hope that when I leave this temporary earth, hopefully not too soon, one of my kids or grandkids will continue this family tradition that I started years ago. It has been a true blessing for all of us.
Good luck to all of you that are participating in the 2022 NCAA March Madness, Have fun and be happy for the people that do well. You never know, next year, you could be the winner!