Every March needs a Cinderella, and Jody’s Forest Club can punch its ticket as an originator in gambling-related contests.
But in the home of bourbon, basketball and the Louisville Slugger, could the idea of penciling in a winner for every line have taken its first swing in 1970s Kentucky?
Bob Stinson, who died at 68 in 2018, was a U.S. Postal Service worker who applied the idea of using his recreational softball league bracket and the furor over Kentucky Derby betting slips to create his own bracket for the 1978 NCAA Tournament.
“My dad just thought it would be fun to fill out the brackets,” said his son, Damon Stinson. “It was kind of a betting thing but not really. It was kind of a who-knows-college-basketball-better kind of thing.”
Stinson said his father used a ruler and unlined paper to sketch out brackets and required only a nominal entry fee. The winner earned more bragging rights than a life-changing bonanza, though that was just fine with Bob Stinson, who traveled around the country for his job and brought brackets with him every March.