An Indianapolis Hotel Tells The Story of the Men’s NCAA Tournament

Looming 34 stories above downtown Indianapolis and featuring a curved structure and gleaming glass exterior, the JW Marriott Hotel would be hard to miss at any time of year.

This, however, is no ordinary time of year, especially in the hoops-crazy Hoosier State. The men’s NCAA tournament concluded last night with Michigan defeating Connecticut in Indianapolis’s Lucas Oil Stadium, less than two miles from the Marriott, which for three weeks has displayed on its front a 60,000-square-foot version of the bracket for all the world to see. It’s the brainchild of Indianapolis-based Sport Graphics and its CEO, Frank Hancock, who has worked closely with the Indiana Sports Corp to bring to life an idea that has become as much a part of Indy’s sports tradition as the Brickyard, commemorating everything from the Indianapolis 500 and the NFL draft to the College Football Playoff championship game and the NBA All-Star Game.

It is the most visible demonstration of Indianapolis’s love for and commitment to hosting March Madness. Which helps explain why no city has become more closely connected with the tournament than the “Crossroads of America.” In the last 40 years, the city has hosted the at least part of the men’s tournament 21 times. It has welcomed the Final Four eight times just since 1991 — only Kansas City, with 10, has ever had the event more often, and that city hasn’t hosted since 1988 — and been the site of such unforgettable moments as Duke’s upset of undefeated UNLV in 1991, Dean Smith‘s last game as North Carolina’s coach in 1997, and Gordon Hayward‘s halfcourt heave that just missed giving Butler a Hollywood-ending against Duke in the 2010 championship game. The Blue Devils, in fact, have been particularly fond of Indy, winning three titles in the city. “You’re consumed by the Final Four,” iconic Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said recently. “I love it.”

The NCAA, which is headquartered in town, does too: Indianapolis is already scheduled to host the men’s Final Four just three years from now, the shortest gap between hosting since . . . Indianapolis, which hosted in both 1997 and 2000.

It’s no surprise, then, that in 2021, as the sports world crawled back from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA decided to host the entire tournament in the area, culminating in the Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium. When the Baylor Bears completed their championship run part of the celebration the next day included taking a picture with the hotel’s completed bracket in the background and a “BU” logo prominently displayed in the center.

That year’s bracket was comparatively small at 40,000-square feet. This year’s is the size of 12 basketball courts and it takes two weeks to install a blank version that can then be ready for the start of the tournament.

That isn’t Sport Graphics’ only contribution to March Madness. The company also creates the graphics for the venues hosting men’s and women’s games across the country.

The company debuted 40 years ago. Lucas Oil Stadium opened in 2008 and the JW Marriott opened in 2011. One year later, as the city was preparing to host Super Bowl XLVI, Sport Graphics hit on the notion of decorating the entire side of the hotel. Three years later it did the same for the Final Four, and a new tradition was born.

Though it would be a natural for corporate branding, it has been used sparingly for that purpose. Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has been featured multiple times on ads, one for Gatorade and another for Nike, and it has also been used to herald the arrival of Taylor Swift before a concert for her Eras Tour. None of which, by the way, gets in the way of the view for guests on the inside, because the effect on the graphics is similar to that of tinted glass.

The company puts graphics on venues across the city, from Gainbridge Fieldhouse (home of the NBA’s Pacers and WNBA’s Fever) and Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Colts and major events such as the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in 2024.

At roughly midnight ET, the college basketball world crowned a new national champion, with the Wolverines ascending a ladder to cut down the nets after their 69-63 win that gave them their first title in 37 years. A few miles away, workers with SportGraphics would soon be scaling the seventh-biggest building in the state of Indiana, etching one last name onto the world’s biggest bracket and into history. It was a perfect ending.