The Year Was 1995

Our humble first pool.

1995. Before Javascript which helped run the online web entry from 1999-2013. Before finalfour.net debuted in 1996. Before DVDs. Before the Spice Girls. Before the Star Wars Special Editions. Our first pool was run by telephone by the HW-UCLA folks (including co-admin David (The Mighty Mobelfakta) and coercing unsuspecting victims like myself (Silver Fabone) to pony up $10 for a sport I didn’t watch. We got 12 entries that first year. And they assigned nicknames which was sometimes unflattering :-).

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Tyus Edney Saved Our Pool

15 years ago today (March 19th), Tyus Edney went coast-to-coast in 4.8 seconds to help UCLA beat Mizzou and possibly saved the HWCI NCAA Pool.  This pool was created because UCLA was the favorite to win it all by our UCLA alumni in a Westwood apartment.  Of course, UCLA went on to win it all and the pool has continued ever since.  But had UCLA lost, who knows, we may have deleted all files and closed down shop.

Here is the recap, then done by Andy way back in 1995, the first year of our pool.

USC Wins Pac-10 Title

Whoa… now I gotta pick them to make the 2nd round.  There’s one loss in my bracket already.  This is probably the final nail in Arizona’s coffin in extending their steak of 24 straight tourneys.  That gives the Pac 10 5 teams in the tourney, which is already one too many.  No room for ‘Zona to sneak in this time.  Barring some extreme generosity by the selection committee, Arizona and Kentucky failing to make the tourney will only leave Kansas as the lone team to be in every bracket since our pool started in 1995.