Who invented the March Madness bracket? Staten Island bar makes claim

The inventor of the March Madness bracket varies depending on who you ask, but a Staten Island bar is making the case that it's behind the popular bracket. 

Jody's Club Forest in Staten Island NCAA bracket claim

The backstory:

Staten Island pub Jody’s Club Forest asserts that the bar helped launch the bracket into a billion-dollar business.

Terrence Haggerty owns the bar and tells the Associated Press that a pool was created that he says "blew up over time."

"Looking back at it now, how did we pull it off? How did we do it? It was crazy," Haggerty shared with the AP. 

How did the bar establish its bracket pool?

Local perspective:

Haggerty’s parents, Mary and Jody, opened the club in 1976, and by the next NCAA college basketball season, reportedly had the concept of establishing a college basketball pool to increase their business. 

The couple's rules were simple for players: you were required to pay $10 to pick only the Final Four teams, the national champ and total points as a tiebreaker in a winner-take-all format. 

According to the AP, the college tournament field of 32 teams — no need to fill a line for every round — was reduced by the 88 total team entries, with the winner earning $880.

The Staten Island business ended the pool in 2006, amid scrutiny from everyone, including the IRS. The jackpot was a staggering $1.6 million for the winner.

The numbers for the game raised a red flag in the federal government. After the winner supposedly claimed the winnings on a tax form, the IRS visited Jody’s Club door. 

According to the Associated Press, the bar was in the clear for the pool, but the IRS determined that Jody Haggerty didn't fully report his income for more than three years. Haggerty pleaded guilty to tax-evasion charges, received probation and was forced to pay restitution.

Is there proof that Jody's Club Forest started the NCAA Tournament bracket?

Dig deeper:

The Associated Press reported that there is no acknowledgment that Jody’s Club Forest was a space for basketball wagers, with no banner to promote the game or pictures of past winners or records of the winning tickets. 

Haggerty admitted to the AP that there’s no real proof the pub was the first spot to run an organized pool.

Haggerty has no record of ticket winners — not even of the $1.6 million jackpot — however, a past champion who played the game told the AP about his share of a six-figure payout won in 2003. 

Jack Driscoll told the Associated Press that he played almost every year during the pool and remembered the first time he placed his bet.