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Before Selection Sunday was nationally televised; before being bombarded with advertisements every five minutes on TV and radio and repeatedly on every website; Before the NCAA tournament raised more than a billion dollars for the NCAA and before every bureau offered staples like mints, there was Jody’s Club Forest.
And there were Jody and Mary Haggerty, the ancestors of the March Madness betting pool.
This sports-gambling holiday, which resumed yesterday, owes something — though that might not be the perfect word — to its creators, who helped turn a hobby into a national pastime.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/14/the-saga-of-the-new-york-bar-that-gave-birth-to-the-brackets/ The saga of the New York bar that birthed the brackets
