An article and video about Muggle Quidditch... A sport being played on college campuses.

Watch at YouTube.com

Read the full article here.

Not Harry Potter? Not a Problem

Katie Stack has been enchanted with Harry Potter and his magical escapades since the fourth grade. She spent hours reading the series and reenacting the boy wizard’s adventures with her friends.

She is in college now, but Stack (CAS’11) continues to live out her childhood fantasies. She plays Quidditch, the international sport of the wizarding world, which has players zooming around on broomsticks and using balls to score points and knock one another off course.
The earthbound variation is called Muggle Quidditch. The sport originated in 2005 when a student at Middlebury College adapted the game for the nonmagical world. Its popularity quickly spread, and today more than 150 colleges throughout the United States have Quidditch teams.

Sean Culleton (CAS’10) founded the BU team last spring, and by this fall the sport had taken off. The team holds scrimmages every Sunday afternoon on the BU Beach and in October competed against 11 other schools in the second annual Intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup, held in Vermont, at Middlebury.

“The entire season has been leading up to this event,” says Raven Villegas (CAS’12). “The World Cup is the ultimate Quidditch experience, and I’ve been dreaming about it for months.”

While the wizards in the Potter series play Quidditch on flying broomsticks, Muggles (author J. K. Rowling’s word for nonmagical people) run holding a broom between their legs. It’s a lot harder than it looks, and just as awkward, says Stack, who is team captain while Culleton is studying abroad.

“We’re a small, kind of ragtag group,” she says. “Not everyone has brooms yet, so some people play with Wiffle bats or lacrosse sticks. And we only have two hoops. You’re supposed to have three on each end of the field.”

As in the fictional game, each Muggle Quidditch team has seven players: three chasers, two beaters, a keeper, and a seeker. Chasers score points by throwing a quaffle, or volleyball, through one of three hoops (worth 10 points) while trying to avoid bludgers, or dodgeballs, that are thrown by beaters. (If chasers are hit by a bludger, they must drop the quaffle.) The keeper’s job is to protect the three goalposts, while the seeker must capture the snitch — a sock stuffed with tennis balls carried by a person (typically a cross-country runner) dressed in gold. Capturing the snitch nets an additional 30 points and ends the game.

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I have to admit that it looks like a lot of fun... Though I say lose the whole broomstick between the legs bit and just play.

Okay, this is when I have a problem with Harry Potter fans. STOP milking the shit out of this, god damn it! Because of you morons everyone assumes all Harry Potters fans are bloody idiots!

Ra,

*ahem* ...but would you play it?

The event looks like so much fun! And then the sport... WTF IS THAT?! The sport looks completely idiotic! And WTF, WHY is the snitch a PERSON? Muggle Quidditch is a terrible idea, but the loads of people getting into it makes it look like a fun event at least.

Originally Posted by Admin

*ahem* ...but would you play it?

I have as much chance of playing this game as buying lights for my house for a meaningless holiday.

Ra,

It is slightly ridiculous that they have broom sticks between their legs. xD

I bet when JK Rolling wrote the books, she didn't anticipate that people would make a 'muggle' version of Quidditch.

I have to agree with jappyx on this one. I doubt she imagined this kind of madness... Though now I wonder if she (or her publishing company) is trying to figure out a way to profit from this or litigate it out of existence.

For some reason this just reminded me of a dream I had ages ago about playing a sport that was a mix of soccer, dodgeball and billiards. Making up sports would be fun.

Originally Posted by Admin

I have to agree with jappyx on this one. I doubt she imagined this kind of madness... Though now I wonder if she (or her publishing company) is trying to figure out a way to profit from this or litigate it out of existence.

For some reason this just reminded me of a dream I had ages ago about playing a sport that was a mix of soccer, dodgeball and billiards. Making up sports would be fun.

Up for a game of Calvinball???

Originally Posted by Zoe

Up for a game of Calvinball???

Totally! Man I miss Calvin and Hobbes...

What happened to broomstick massacre 3!

NKP

Originally Posted by Naughty Kuchi-Patchi

What happened to broomstick massacre 3!

NKP

Broomstick massacre?

I would play it...
Just not the broomstick part.
I LOVE Harry Potter.
I've read it 3 times and on my 4th.

When I was ten, my sister and I rounded up a bunch of neighborhood kids and we played that with laundry baskets, a kickball and tenis balls.

We also got them to play Calvinball. We tipped over two basketball hoops and ran around trees and stuff. But with many injuries and my parents not wanting a lawsuit, we were forced to stick with Quidditch.
Minus the broomsticks.

Ah, Memories.
xD

It looks weird I wouldn't try, I like the plain quidditch in the Harry Potter series. You may have Harry Potter events, but, this is too much! O.O