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Hey, history lovers.

I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, next week kicks off March Madness.

There's the past to Leitner, puts it up.

Yes!

In estimated 50 million people fill out of bracket each year.

So as you finish filling out yours,

you might want to tip your pencil and say thanks to Jody Haggerty,

the late and loud Staten Island bar owner

who is the godfather of bracketology.

It is an invention turned cultural phenomenon,

and it nearly sent him to federal prison.

Haggerty owned a bar called Jody's Club Forrest, and he was a man of many questions.

After he died in 2016, a local newspaper columnist wrote, quote, you never knew what to expect

when you walked into Jody's,

what the topic of the day might be. That was one of the glories of the place. In early March of

1977, the conversation topic was the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament. Haggarty asked

his patrons to predict the winners in each game. They printed out the pairings, picked their winners, and paid $10 a pop.

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