A pinch of witchcraft and wizardry reappears in the Ivy League
The sight of students scampering around while holding onto broomsticks between their thighs may have been a strange sight for the muggles at U Penn. The 319 similar collegiate teams across the country and millions of Harry Potter fans across the globe, however, would instantly make sense of the bedlam. Penn students were engaged in a game of Quidditch and unlike its fantastical counterpart, the club sport is fueled by the magic of imagination in place of, well, actual magic.
Since its inception in 2005 at Middlebury, club Quidditch has been sweeping the nation in a tidal wave of nostalgia and wholesome fun. The rules are simple: catch the Snitch to end the game and ensure victory for your team. In the popularized version of the game, the Snitch is represented by a sock attached to the head of a varsity cross-country runner, zipping to and fro during the match to avoid capture. The rest of the game vaguely resembles a frantic combination of dodge ball and European handball, a mess of projectiles soaring and criss-crossing in the air.
Penn isn’t the first school in the Ivy League to organize its own Quidditch team. As recently as 2008, the Dartmouth Outing Club helmed the college’s inaugural Quidditch team, which clashed with a potent Middlebury squad that same year. The game’s spell quickly wore, however, as the Dartmouth team promptly disbanded following the scrimmage. In an email correspondence, DOC Safety Director Riley Kane ’12 lamented about the failed attempts to revitalize interest in the club sport. If interest in Quidditch hasn’t permanently waned at Dartmouth, we could see a revival amongst campus wizards and give Penn players a run for their money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cZksZ6WZw4&feature=player_embedded