Intercollegiate Quidditch Association

Things have changed a lot since I last was in school. For example, GoogleBooks allows me to take a preview of a textbook to see if I would want to use it without having to search for the book in the library or even leave my desk. Another striking change that I just discovered this weekend is that my university has a quidditch team. What is quidditch? It is a unique game invented by author J.K. Rowling involving broomsticks, hoops, bats, and balls, and she created the fictitious sport for her characters to play in the Harry Potter novels. I suppose the game sounded like so much fun to play, students decided to take it up themselves in real life.

This weekend some college students will be gathering together to celebrate the performance of their football teams on massive scales, such as the Red River Rivalry in Dallas pitting the Texas Longhorns against the Oklahoma Sooners. In sharp contrast, others will gather together on a much smaller scale in a much more humble environment to watch a rousing game of quidditch. I came across a note on my school's calendar events heralding a quidditch match against the University of Richmond that was free and open to the public! Intrigued that this event existed at all, much less in an organized fashion, I did a quick search and came across the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association. You can learn more about the sport here: http://www.collegequidditch.com/.

You can also read about the local VCU and University of Richmond teams in these articles:
http://media.www.commonwealthtimes.com/media/storage/paper634/news/2008/05/01/News/Quidditch.Comes.To.Vcu-3361060.shtml
http://www.thecollegianur.com/2009/10/07/quidditch-team/