No Indiana team made the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament this year, but that doesn’t mean the competition is over for all of us Hoosiers. The Shelton Bracket Trophy is still up for grabs.
That’s a lie. It’s already obvious that the hardware is coming home with me this year.
You see that photo up there? That’s a picture of last year’s trophy presentation. My 87-year-old Grandpa Shelton is the reigning bracket champion.
Yep. We all got slayed by an old man. 😉
March Madness is serious business in the Shelton family. Not only does the winner get to house the traveling trophy for the year, but their initials are permanently painted on the ball for future generations to admire. And there’s $100 involved. That’s a big deal.
It’s a tradition that goes back years and years. My dad is always the official scorekeeper, and keeps printouts of everyone’s brackets next to his chair. I always paint the winner’s initials on the trophy. Courtny always loses…
Personally, I’ve had a bit of a dry spell. My last bracket win occurred in 2007, back when my initials were SLS. However, this year I’m so confident that a Cotten (specifically, me) will appear on the trophy that I’m posting my bracket for all to see.
Behold.
Play In Winners: Albany, N.C. State, Cal Poly, Iowa
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Who did you pick as your national champion this year? Do you take your bracket seriously, or do you pick based on which team has the cuter mascot? (Butler will always win that battle, obviously.) Are you as excited as I am for Thursday afternoon’s games?
At an elementary school that I worked at we always had the children draw teams and then research them (e.g. location, number of students… ). It was great to see them get all excited the next day they came in to see if their team had won. The winning child would then be able to pick up a prize from the university they supported. Not being from the U.S. I had no idea what March Madness is, but I definitely enjoy it and think using it at a school can be lots of fun! 🙂
P.S. One year I filled out my own bracket, but I copied down Barack Obama’s answers, because he is the president and he knows basketball 😉