In the spirit and fun of college basketball’s March Madness, the Ohio History Connection and Smith Library of Regional History invite you to participate in Ohio Memory Madness – a bracket of sixty-four historical events from across the state all competing for the unique distinction of being named the 2015 Ohio Memory Madness Champion. Since the historical events featured in the bracket are unable to play tournament style basketball, the winner of Ohio Memory Madness will be determined by public online voting at www.ohiohistoryhost.org/madness/.

The Ohio Memory Madness bracket features images of a variety of historical events pulled from Ohio

Memory, the collaborative digital library project of the Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio, with digital collections from 360 cultural heritage institutions representing all of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Smith History Library is proud to have Freedom Summer represent Oxford in this statewide competition.

The photo shown is of Fannie Lou Hamer visiting Civil Rights workers training at Western College for Women during Freedom Summer in 1964. The photograph was taken by George R. Hoxie.

Event images will go head to head beginning March 17, and the voting is scheduled as follows:

First round: March 17–20

Round of 32: March 21-25

Sweet 16: March 26-27

Elite 8: March 28-30

Final 4: April 2-4

Championship: April 5-6

The public can vote throughout the tournament to be sure their favorite event image makes it to the championship – they can also enter to win a prize pack from the Ohio History Connection including tickets to the Ohio History Center in Columbus, a Retro Ohio t-shirt, and an assortment of Ohio munchies to enjoy while watching that other sport.

The Smith Library, a division of Lane Public Libraries, collects information on the history of Oxford, Butler County, and southwestern Ohio.