Maguire University


Maguire University is a fictitious college invented in 1963 by a group of Chicago high school basketball coaches, for the sole purpose of securing tickets to the NCAA Final Four.

History

The idea was hatched by then-Fenwick High School coach Len Tyrrell at Maguire's Pub in Forest Park, Illinois. The NCAA fell for it, and so did at least one real school: the United States Air Force Academy, which contacted Tyrrell and asked to play his nonexistent team.
Maguire received Final Four tickets for two years, until Bill Jauss wrote about the scam in the Chicago Tribune. The NCAA was not amused. The coaches then had to acquire their own tickets, and at least one of them has attended every Final Four ever since. Maguire's motto, "We Play Hurt", is a reference to the hangovers accrued by Maguire's "students".
Terrell grew the faux-university's "enrollment" from the original eight members to well over 150 in the thirty-plus years he ran the phony school. He was also named Maguire's first Hall of Fame member, after resigning his position in 2000. Kelly's Pub, on Webster Street in Chicago, serves as the college's "campus" since the closing of Maguire's Pub in 1988.
For the 2018 Final Four, the Jollymen were based at the Drury Plaza Hotel in San Antonio.