Is your bracket busted yet? They don't call it "March Madness" for nothing!
As a matter of fact, they call it "March Madness" because of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request). Information about that is HERE (scroll down to the entry dated June 16th).
Emmett Lee Dickinson also invented the tournament bracket. The very first bracket -- in Dickisnon's handwriting -- is on display at the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard), and it shows Smith College vs. Harvard, Bryn Mawr vs. Princeton, Mt. Holyoke vs. Yale, and William & Mary vs. Barnard College. Dickinson predicted that Bryn Mawr would win the title, but that distinction went to Mt. Holyoke -- so Dickinson was also the first to call an upset a "bracket buster" when Princeton beat Bryn Mawr in the first round of the tournament.
Dickinson wrote the poem "As on the games we love to bet" about that experience, and his poem inspired his third cousin Emily to write "As by the dead we like to sit." Both poems are shown below.
As a matter of fact, they call it "March Madness" because of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request). Information about that is HERE (scroll down to the entry dated June 16th).
Emmett Lee Dickinson also invented the tournament bracket. The very first bracket -- in Dickisnon's handwriting -- is on display at the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard), and it shows Smith College vs. Harvard, Bryn Mawr vs. Princeton, Mt. Holyoke vs. Yale, and William & Mary vs. Barnard College. Dickinson predicted that Bryn Mawr would win the title, but that distinction went to Mt. Holyoke -- so Dickinson was also the first to call an upset a "bracket buster" when Princeton beat Bryn Mawr in the first round of the tournament.
Dickinson wrote the poem "As on the games we love to bet" about that experience, and his poem inspired his third cousin Emily to write "As by the dead we like to sit." Both poems are shown below.
| By Emmett Lee Dickinson: As on the games we love to bet, Becomes so wondrous clear – But with a loss we grapple For all is busted there – In Bracket mathematics We estimate the prize Vast – an infinite ratio To our precarious tries! | By Emily Dickinson: As by the dead we love to sit, Become so wondrous dear -- As for the lost we grapple Tho' all the rest are here -- In broken mathematics We estimate our prize Vast — in its fading ratio To our penurious eyes! |
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