Dan Terwilliger wins Butler Eagle March Madness 2025 bracket in test of patience
For Dan Terwilliger, Norman Voelker Jr. and John Tabisz, patience has paid off.
Literally.
Terwilliger, 67, of Butler, won this year’s Butler Eagle March Madness Contest, tallying 111 points to win by tiebreaker over fellow Butler resident Voelker, 63. Terwilliger predicted 145 points would be scored in the NCAA Tournament title game while Voelker predicted 167. Florida edged Houston 65-63.
Tabisz, 71, a retired Slippery Rock High School teacher and girls basketball coach, finished third with 110 points. All three participants correctly picked all of the Final Four teams and each had Florida topping Houston in the finals.
Terwilliger won $500, Voelker $250 and Tabisz $100.
“I’ve been playing that contest for years,” Terwilliger said. “I finished fourth or fifth one time, a number of years ago, but never finished in the money.
“I didn’t think it was going to happen this year. On Saturday, I was kicking myself for not picking Duke, then Houston came back. Florida had 13 to 15 turnovers in the first half Monday night. ... Somehow, it all worked out.”
Terwilliger said he plans to “take my family out for a real nice dinner” with his winnings. Voelker and Tabisz have no special plans for their money.
Terwilliger added he had never had much luck with the NCAA Tournament.
“All those years Pitt was in the Big East, I picked them to win,” he said. “Of course, that never happened. The year Pitt was a No. 1 seed, I was in New Orleans for business and Pitt would have played there in the next round.
“I was going to go. ... Then they lost to No. 8-seed Butler and never got there.”
Voelker won the Eagle’s March Madness Contest in 2019, the year Virginia claimed the title. That was the only year he finished in the money before this season.
“I’ve been playing that thing for a long time,” Voelker said of the Eagle’s contest. “I love that tournament. It’s fun to watch. I had too many points in the tiebreaker, but it’s nice to finish in second.
“This is the first time since 2008 all four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four. I thought this was the year to go for that. Those were the four best teams.”
Tabisz won 290 total games in three separate stints as Slippery Rock’s girls basketball coach, retiring for good in 2016. Despite filling out a bracket for the Eagle’s March Madness contest every year, he had never finished higher than 135th.
“When I was a teacher, 20 students in my class played the Eagle’s contest, too,” Tabisz recalled. “I put my bracket up on the chalkboard and marked each loss on my bracket with an X.
“One of the girls in my class walked up to the sheet and asked me, ‘Are all of those black X’s wrong answers?’ When I said yes, she looked at me and said, ‘And they let you coach basketball?’”
Tabisz said he picked the four No. 1 seeds to reach the Final Four because everyone was telling him the tournament was wide open.
“Totally up in the air,” he said. “I wanted to prove them wrong. I took all the favorites, and it worked out.“
