Meet the American who coined 'March Madness,' Illinois high school hoops pioneer and visionary H.V. Porter

'America's Newsroom' co-host Bill Hemmer hosts the new multi-part 'Meet the American Who...' on Fox Nation, based on the successful Fox News Digital series.

March Madness afflicts millions of American sports fans each year during springtime. 

Victims of the fever exhibit spontaneous outbreaks of basketball jargon, cry over busted brackets and call in sick to work on Thursdays and Fridays. 

There is no known cure for March Madness. 

But basketballogists know its origin. The malady was first diagnosed in 1939 by Illinois high school sports administrator Henry "H.V." Porter. 

FOX NATION'S NEW SERIES ‘MEET THE AMERICAN WHO’ TELLS OF ORDINARY AMERICANS WHO GAVE US EXTRAORDINARY INNOVATIONS

He was as Illinois as a horseshoe sandwich. And he loved high school basketball. 

"When the March Madness is on him, midnight jaunts of a hundred miles on successive nights make him even more alert the next day," Porter wrote romantically of the state’s exuberant high school basketball fans during the raucous statewide tournament in March 1939. 

H.V. Porter coined the phrase "March Madness" as a high school sports administrator in Illinois in 1939. He entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1960.  (Illinois High School Association)

It’s the first-known use of a phrase now associated with the wildly popular NCAA men's basketball tournament — first held, coincidentally, in March 1939, just as Porter was penning his "March Madness" essay for "Illinois High School Athlete" magazine.

Decades later, the NCAA adopted and trademarked the phrase.

"Porter was a visionary. He was ahead of his time." — Bruce Firchau, Basketball Museum of Illinois

March Madness swept over the hardwood courts of small-town Middle America long before it emerged from the