Found this searching online looking for "Final Four" history (found this on wikipedia, so may be totally untrue)... Never knew MU was linked to the term's first use...
"The term Final Four refers to the last four teams remaining in the playoff tournament. These are the champions of the tournament's four regional brackets, and the only teams remaining on the tournament's final weekend. (The term has been applied retroactively to include the last four teams in tournaments from earlier years, when only two brackets existed.)
Some claim that the phrase Final Four was first used to describe the final games of Indiana's annual high school basketball tournament. But the NCAA, which has a trademark on the term, says Final Four was originated by a Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter, Ed Chay, in a 1975 article that appeared in the Official Collegiate Basketball Guide. The article stated that Marquette University "was one of the final four" in the 1974 tournament. The NCAA started capitalizing the term in 1978, and turning it into a trademark several years later."
---If its true, I think it kind of makes our 1974 Final Four banner a little cooler
Also I read a week ago that Al was the one that brought about calling the NCAA tournament the "Big Dance." I think someone asked him if he would wear his lucky suit in the tournament and he said you always have to wear a blue blazer when going to the big dance.