Quidditch Takes Off at Syracuse

SYRACUSE, N.Y., May 22, 2009 -- Three large goal hoops sit behind each team, positioned on opposite sides of the field, and several balls are scattered across the grass. Someone yells "Brooms up!" and the game is on.

Voices shouting words like "quaffle," "bludger," and "keeper" carry on the warm Sunday breeze. Players run up and down the field, trying to score a goal.

"Harry Potter, Harry Potter!" calls a person from a passing car. Several other cars honk and point. Drew Shields just shrugs his shoulders and grins.

"I'm not immune to the fact that I'm running around with a broom between my legs," says Shields, a freshman advertising major. "I know how stupid I look. But the type of people that are drawn to Quidditch are the kind of people who will suspend that sort of embarrassment and embrace it."

Freshman history major Peter Zona adds, "Every once in awhile you get somebody who shouts out '10 points for Gryffindor' or whatever. I guess people are just surprised to see kids playing Quidditch."

That's right, Quidditch. The sport played by wizards on broomsticks in the Harry Potter novels, Quidditch is taking off on college campuses across the country—despite the fact that no one can actually fly.

The game was adapted for non-magical people, or "muggles," by a student at Middlebury College in 2005. Since then, the sport, governed by the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association, has spread to more than 200 campuses worldwide. The IQA has hosted four World Cups.

This year, Syracuse University joined the legions of college Quidditch players when, after playing in the 2008 World Cup, Shields and his roommate Zona decided to bring the game to campus.

A semester later, SU's team has attracted a group of loyal regulars who've formed their own Facebook group.

"It's Pete, myself, and a couple of our close friends," Shields says. "Then we just pray that enough people will show up so we can have a game."

"We keep trying to spread the word, get people interested, tell our friends about it, have them tell their friends about it," Zona says. "Hopefully by the time the Quidditch World Cup rolls around next year we'll have enough for a full team."