Picture this: It’s 1963 in a smoky Chicago bar, where a group of basketball-loving buddies are nursing beers and griping about the impossible task of scoring tickets to the NCAA Men’s Final Four. Back then, the NCAA was a fortress—tickets were reserved for “real” universities, coaches, and bigwigs. But these guys weren’t about to let that stop them.

With a wink and a laugh, they hatched a plan: Why not create their own university? And just like that, Maguire University was born—not in a lecture hall, but over pints and peanuts. Named after a fictional founder (or maybe just the bar owner’s last name—stories vary), it began as the ultimate prank on the NCAA’s stuffy gatekeepers. They printed fake credentials, submitted their “application,” and voilà—tickets in hand.

Little did they know, this cheeky stunt would evolve into a worldwide social club that’s part prankster paradise, part philanthropic powerhouse.