Every spring, the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament takes over America.

Offices shut down, brackets get busted, and millions of people suddenly become college basketball experts.

But the history behind March Madness is a lot stranger than most fans realize.

When the first NCAA tournament was played in 1939, only eight teams competed. The first champion was the Oregon Ducks men's basketball.

But at the time, the real prestige belonged to the National Invitation Tournament, played in Madison Square Garden. Some schools actually turned down the NCAA tournament so they could play in the NIT instead.

The phrase March Madness wasn’t created for the college tournament at all.

It was first used by Illinois high school sports official Henry V. Porter in 1939 to describe the excitement around the state high school tournament. Years later, broadcaster Brent Musburger began using it during NCAA tournament broadcasts, and the name stuck.

The tournament slowly grew over the decades, but 1985 was the turning point. That’s when the bracket expanded to 64 teams, creating the modern format we know today.

That same year produced one of the most unlikely champions ever. The Villanova Wildcats men's basketball, an 8-seed, defeated the heavily favored Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball in the national championship while shooting a nearly impossible 78.6% from the field.

For decades, basketball fans believed one thing would never happen: a 16-seed beating a 1-seed.

Then in 2018, the UMBC Retrievers men's basketball stunned the Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball. Before that game, 16-seeds had gone 0–135 against top seeds.

UMBC didn’t just win, they won by 20 points.

March Madness truly exploded in popularity after the 1979 championship game between Magic Johnson of the Michigan State Spartans men's basketball and Larry Bird of the Indiana State Sycamores men's basketball.

It became one of the most watched college basketball games ever and launched a rivalry that would later define the NBA.

Every year, millions of people try to pick the perfect bracket.

Statistically, the odds are estimated at about 1 in 9.2 quintillion.

Which explains why no verified perfect bracket has ever survived the entire tournament.

The strange truth is that March Madness started as a tiny tournament overshadowed by another event, borrowed its name from high school basketball, and became a national obsession largely because of chaos, upsets, and a little bit of luck.

In other words, the history of March Madness is exactly like the tournament itself, completely unpredictable.