He is also credited with popularizing the term "March Madness" through an original essay he wrote in 1939 and a later poem distributed to the various state high school associations and widely republished.

His first duties were to organize a department to license and train officials in football, basketball, and baseball, and to serve as editor of a new monthly magazine, the Illinois High School Athlete.

In 1934 he was placed in charge of the NFHS effort to develop a molded basketball to replace the expensive sewn models that high school programs could scarcely afford.

[1] As Whitten prepared to step down as chief executive of both the IHSAA and NFHS in 1940, Porter, his heir apparent at the state association, chose instead to become the first full-time director of the National Federation.

As in his previous job, his first order of business was to launch a monthly journal, the National Press Service, which delivered news to member associations, as well as articles and illustrations intended for republication.

After more than a year of often acrimonious discussions, the two groups agreed to final language in the summer of 1948, only to have the NCAA pull out of the project after the NFHS had already gone to print with its edition of the joint code.

In 1939, near the end of his run with the IHSAA, he penned an affectionate essay about fans of the state's high school basketball tournament, which had grown significantly in popularity during the 1930s.

"[4] Two years later, while in his first year at the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations, Porter wrote a poem entitled "Basketball Ides of March," which he included in the National Press Service, the Federation's monthly journal, with a suggestion to state associations to republish the poem during basketball tournament time.

Now eagles fly and heroes die Beneath some foreign arch Let their sons tread where hate is dead In a happy Madness of March.