March Madness history: A comprehensive guide to the men's tournament

Here is a comprehensive guide to the NCAA tournament and its history, for college basketball fans of every level.

First, the TL/DR version:

• The first NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was played in 1939. 
  • It had eight teams. 
  • Oregon is the first NCAA tournament champion, beating Ohio State for the title.
• The NCAA tournament field grew to 16 teams in 1951, doubled to 32 in 1975 and expanded to its current size of 64 teams in 1985. 
  • An opening-round game was introduced in 2001. Three more games were added to that round in 2011 for the inaugural First Four.
• The term 'March Madness' was first used in reference to basketball by an Illinois high school official, Henry V. Porter, in 1939. 
• March Madness wouldn't become associated with the NCAA tournament until Brent Musberger used it during coverage of the 1982 tournament.
• One Shining Moment, the anthem of March Madness, was first aired following the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 1987. 
  • It was initially scheduled to run after Super Bowl XXI but the game coverage ran long.
• Believe it or not, the NIT (1938) was actually founded before the NCAA tournament. 
  • The NIT field is now usually made up of teams that miss the NCAA tournament.
• UMBC first owned the biggest upset in March Madness history, becoming the first 16-seed to win against a 1-seed. The Retrievers beat No. 1 Virginia 74-54 in 2018. In 2023, FDU joined the club by beating No. 1 Purdue
• Duke owns the largest comeback and second-largest lead blown in NCAA tournament history
  • The 2001 Blue Devils stormed back to beat Maryland after being down 22 points while Duke’s 1989 team lost despite leading Seton Hall by 18.
• Christian Laettner (Duke), is the NCAA tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 407 points. Only nine players have more than 300 points in March Madness.
• Notre Dame’s Austin Carr is not among the nine, but he holds the NCAA tournament’s single-game scoring record with 61 points in a 1970 game against Ohio.
• Loyola Marymount is part of the three highest scoring games in NCAA tournament history. The Lions’ 149-115 win over Michigan in 1990 is the highest scoring game in March Madness.
• UCLA has the most NCAA men's basketball national championships with 11, including a stretch of seven titles in a row between 1967 and 1973.
• Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski has the most NCAA tournament wins by a single coach (101).

MORE: Browse every NCAA bracket since 1939

When did March Madness start?

The first NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament was in 1939.

Who won the first March Madness?

In 1939, the Oregon Ducks went 29-5 on the season and beat Ohio State 46-33 to win the national title in the first NCAA tournament.

When did March madness expand to 64 teams?

The 1939 tournament featured just eight teams. In 1951, the field doubled to 16, and kept expanding over the next few decades until 1985, when the modern format of a 64-team tournament began. In 2001, after the Mountain West Conference joined Division I and received an automatic bid, pushing the total teams to 65, a single game was added prior to the first round. In 2011, three more teams were added, and with them, three more games to round out the First Four.

Where did the phrase “March Madness” come from?

 by an Illinois high school official, Henry V. Porter, in 1939, but the term didn’t find its way to the NCAA tournament until  (who used to be a sportswriter in Chicago) used it during coverage of the 1982 tournament. The term has been synonymous with the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament ever since.

What is One Shining Moment?

One Shining Moment is the anthem of March Madness. The song was written by David Barrett in 1986, and first used for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 1987. After each tournament, the song accompanies a montage of the best moments of March Madness, from every buzzer beater and major upset to reactions of the fans themselves.

Barrett wrote the song as an ode to basketball, but it was first scheduled to run after Super Bowl XXI. After the coverage of the game ran long, the song never aired for the Super Bowl, but CBS producer Doug Towey used it in the following March Madness, where it has lived ever since. 

RELATED: The man behind One Shining Moment

Is the NIT part of March Madness?

No. While the National Invitation Tournament (or NIT), is operated by the NCAA, it is separate from the Division I men's basketball tournament. The NIT was actually founded before the NCAA tournament, in 1938, but did not become as popular as the NCAA tournament. The NIT's field is usually made up of the top Division I teams that did not receive an invitation to the NCAA tournament.

What is the biggest March Madness comeback?

With 6:37 left in the first half of a 2001 NCAA tournament game, Duke trailed Maryland 39-17. The Blue Devils would rally to win 94-84. That 22 point comeback is the largest in the history of the tournament.

Strangely enough, Duke is on the other side of the runner-up, as the Blue Devils blew a 18-point first-half lead against Seton Hall in 1989, as the Pirates eventually won 95-78.

Who has scored the most points in March?

Christian Laettner is the player who has scored the most points in an NCAA tournament career, with 407. From 1989 to 1992, Laettner played in an unprecedented 23 NCAAT games (reminder, one team can only play six games per year if they make it to the title game, i.e. 24 total throughout a four-year period), while averaging 17.7 points per game.

Only nine players have eclipsed the 300-point mark during NCAA tournament play:

Oscar Robertson's entry on that list is especially impressive, as Robertson played less than half the games that Laettner did, but finished with 80 percent of Laettner's point total.

What is the highest scoring March Madness game ever?

The highest scoring game in NCAA tournament history came on March 18, 1990, when Loyola Marymount beat Michigan by a final score of 149-115 to total 264 points. That score is miles ahead of the second place total of 234, also set by Loyola Marymount.

RELATED: Breaking down the highest scoring games in NCAA March Madness history

Here is the full leaderboard:

Who scored the most points in a March Madness game?

Notre Dame's Austin Carr holds the record for the most points in an NCAA tournament game, with 61 against Ohio in 1970. Carr was a machine for the Fighting Irish and owns three of the top five single-game NCAA tournament scoring performances.

To get an idea of how impressive his performance was, we rewatched that game to see how Carr scored every one of his record-setting 61 points.

Here is the list of the top 10 single-game scoring performances:

What team has the most NCAA tournament appearances?

There have been 80 NCAA tournaments since 1939, and there are five schools that have been to more than half of them. Kentucky has the most NCAA tournament appearances with 57, followed by North Carolina with 49.

Here is the full list of the top 10 teams:

Which team has the most NCAA tournament wins?

Here is the full top 10:

Who has the most NCAA tournament championships?

In the 81 years since the tournament’s inception, no team has won more than UCLA, which has 11, 10 of which came a span of 12 years from 1964 to 1975.

Who has won every NCAA tournament?

Here is the list of every men’s basketball national championship since the NCAA tournament first started in 1939.

How can I find more March Madness records?

You can find the most recent March Madness record books on NCAA.org. and the are here.

 

COMPLETE NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY (1939-present)

1939-49 Brackets: 1939 |1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949

1950s: 1950 | 1951 |1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959

1960s: 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 |1967 | 1968 | 1969

1970s: 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 

1980s: 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989

1990s: 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999

2000s: 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009

2010s: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 

2020s: 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024

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