Harry Potter-inspired Quidditch game gains popularity on campus
From right, kinesiology sophomore Krystina Packard, special education freshman Kayla Barnes, journalism freshman Melissa Anderson and Lyman Briggs sophomore Rachel Dee talk strategy for their first exhibition game of the Michigan State Quidditch League on Tuesday evening at Adams Field.
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Members of MSU’s new Quidditch league don’t use jet packs and they won’t fly through fields, but they are contributing to a skyrocketing interest in Quidditch — a game inspired by the fictional world of J.K Rowling’s “Harry Potter” book series — that has emerged on a local, national and international level.
Quidditch, as described in Harry Potter, is a popular airborne competition among broomstick-riding wizards, requiring ball-like objects such as the spellbound golden snitch, the quaffle and bludgers. The object of the game is to score the most points and, ultimately, catch the golden snitch.
Psychology and math junior Ryan Duffy formed MSU’s Quidditch league this semester, fueled by his 12-year love for the books, which began in third grade.
“I was worried that no one was going to be interested and it was going to look really dorky,” Duffy said.
Despite Duffy’s concern, fear of dorkiness did not stop the 100 people who attended the league’s first meeting. The 55 students who remain involved with the league pay $7 dues and attend meetings and practices.
Gallery: Quidditch
Video: Sweeping the Field ...
The league is registered with the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association, allowing MSU teams to compete against 250 colleges in the U.S. and abroad. All teams abide by the IQA Guide & Rulebook, which has translated the storybook game into a muggle, or nonmagical human, sport.
IQA Commissioner Alex Benepe said Quidditch has taken off since he and friend Xander Manshel created the muggle version of Quidditch in 2005 at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt.
The number of teams involved in the Quidditch World Cup at Middlebury College has doubled since last year, Benepe said.
“It’s really fun and it’s rewarding to have 20 teams of colleges from all over the world come play,” Benepe said.
MSU’s Quidditch league has six teams, four of which have chosen their own Harry Potter-inspired names: the Mischief Managers, the Team Nighthawks, the Fizzing Whizbees and the Ministry of Magic. Duffy said the teams will play against one another for the first year to practice technique, and then begin traveling next year. The Fizzing Whizbees will play the Ministry of Magic on Nov. 7 at the field behind the rock on Farm Lane.
“I don’t really want to play regular sports,” said anthropology sophomore Bailey Reidinger, a captain for the Ministry of Magic who has been playing and taught Quidditch for several years through the Girl Scouts camp where she works.
MSU’s Quidditch league — the first official Harry Potter club on campus — is providing an outlet for Harry Potter fans at MSU.
“I think as people get older, they start to feel a little more embarrassed because they are so obsessed with Harry Potter, so no one wanted to start a Harry Potter club,” league member and psychology sophomore Sara Tischler said.
Writing, rhetoric and American culture professor Gary Hoppenstand said Quidditch leagues show how Harry Potter books have impacted young adults.
“It’s these kind of characters that have achieved immortality,” Hoppenstand said. “If we’re here 100 years from now, so will Harry Potter.”
Reidinger said the book has had a sweeping impact on her life. Aside from meeting friends at home, she found Harry Potter created a universal connection when she purchased the sixth novel with a group of foreign friends in Sweden.
“You think you can never play it in real life because you can’t fly,” Reidinger said. “Someone went and created muggle Quidditch and it’s just this really great way to connect to Harry Potter.”
Sociology professor Toby Ten Eyck said he wasn’t surprised about the emergence of muggle Quidditch, but it represents a lack of creativity.
“It is just them taking something that someone has given them,” Ten Eyck said. “They haven’t made it fantastic, they just made it fit.”
Ten Eyck said students imitating the fictional game demonstrates how a pop culture craze can distance people from their free will.
“Their leisurely activities are being chosen for them,” he said.
But Arthur A. Levine, who published the Harry Potter series, said in falling in love with the series, many kids discover they love reading, too.
“Start with Harry Potter and go from there,” Levine said. “There are other books that you will be able to find that will inspire you, as well.”
J.K. Rowling’s ideas have left the realm of fiction and entered multiple platforms, influencing more than just readers. The series has received attention from varying schools of thought, including politics and scientific history.
Activist organization The Harry Potter Alliance has used the books’ themes to support issues such as same-sex marriage and environmentalism.
Lyman Briggs assistant professor Mark Waddell has incorporated the series in some of his lectures and researched for the United States National Library of Medicine’s exhibit, “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine.”
“This is what great books do: They inspire you to be better people, to care more about someone else because you read about a character,” Levine said. “… That is what the Harry Potter books have done.”
Commentary
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????
(10/20/09 11:58pm)Report
this is our future? Oy!
Dungeon Master
(10/21/09 12:23am)Report
Hey, can any of you “wizards” get me out of the steam tunnels? I’ve been lost down here since the 70s.
p.s., how does Quidditch player look on a resume?
Ogre
(10/21/09 12:53am)Report
I hate NERDS!!!
Gus
(10/21/09 12:55am)Report
okay, i just really want to know what they do for the snitch
CALoysius27
(10/21/09 3:15am)Report
It’s not even like they use the broom to move the ball like field hockey. I hope they have protective gear for when the broom jams them up real good.
really?
(10/21/09 7:45am)Report
i saw them playing yesterday is west circle….thought it was a joke.
how many years until they’re playing in spartan stadium??
better yet…munn?
MaximumBob
(10/21/09 8:33am)Report
Those are some mighty pasty-looking girls.
Maybe the sunlight will do them some good?
Snape
(10/21/09 9:37am)Report
Playing quidditch is distancing people from their free will? And sociologists wonder why no one takes them seriously any more…
wow
(10/21/09 10:20am)Report
Wow, I can’t believe this is real AND made the front page.
If they are going to take a fake game that has no resemblance to “ regular sports” why not Baseketball?
Have you noticed?
(10/21/09 12:39pm)Report
Have you noticed that anyone that posts on the freep with a name of a single letter (i.e. e or j) are bitter. It’s kind of like they don’t care, but obviously they do because they respond to the articles. Well ‘e’, keep your opinions to yourself, you’re the joke.
Alicia
(10/21/09 12:42pm)Report
“Ten Eyck said students imitating the fictional game demonstrates how a pop culture craze can distance people from their free will.
“Their leisurely activities are being chosen for them,” he said.”
I fail to see how this is any different than someone choosing to play basketball or football or anything else, really. Those are all pre-established sports; it’s not as though most people reinvent the wheel every time they decide to take on a new hobby. Just because people enjoy something that happens to have taken off in popular culture doesn’t mean they are “distancing themselves from their free will.”
Concerned Parent
(10/21/09 1:04pm)Report
Imagine your college-aged kid telling you that he just got done playing a fake version of a fake game.
Emily Rodgers
(10/21/09 1:20pm)Report
The snitch is someone who runs around really fast dressed in all yellow. So a good snitch would be someone who can run fast but is small and discreet. I believe has something like a flag around his waist that the seekers have to capture. The interesting part about the snitch is that he or she can run all over campus and doesn’t have to play only on the field. I think there’s a rule that he has to appear on the field every five minutes or something of that nature.
I think this is funny and fantastic and a great way for people who aren’t varsity athletes to get out and play a game that is fun and entertaining.
Go watch some of the videos on YouTube. Middlebury especially gets really into it and has a huge number of spectators in attendance.
Envy
(10/21/09 1:51pm)Report
Wow, I wish I had that amount of free time to play a fake version of a fake game. Too bad I’m an engineer getting a real degree and actually have to work hard in college.
lola
(10/21/09 1:52pm)Report
it’s just for fun, everyone chill out.
Lena
(10/21/09 2:04pm)Report
gosh people, what happened to creativity? Granted, these people may be overly obsessed with Harry potter. But there’s no such thing as a fake game. God forbid people do something interesting with their time…would you rather them just to sit in a dark corner in their room playing online poker all day?
@alicia
(10/21/09 2:45pm)Report
I fail to see how Ten Eyck compared this to any of those sports. Don’t put words in others’ mouths.
G-Man
(10/21/09 2:51pm)Report
For all those that are hating on Harry….I think you are just closet HP addicts….Have some fun because guess what we are all getting older. You can always be borish when you are in your 40’s.
Sean
(10/21/09 3:48pm)Report
My new goal in life is is to someday become IQA commissioner.
I wonder if they have to deal with players “enhancing” themselves…say, with some sort of anabolic steroid spell.
alyssa
(10/21/09 3:55pm)Report
I’m actually a captain for one of the teams (Fizzing Wizzbees) and yes, I love Harry Potter. I’m not some creepy nerd who has no life. I have two jobs, 17 credits, and a 3.7 GPA. I do this for fun and because I enjoy the HP series. It’s not a “Fake” game, it’s just a re-invention of someone else’s creativity.
That sociology prof. sounds like an idiot. I’m not creatively stunted, and I’m not lacking free will. Obviously I chose to participate in the group even though many people will think I’m a freak.
Quidditch as we play it is actually very physically demanding (full body contact and take downs) without the comfort of pads or traditional rules protecting players. (Yes, the Snitch is an actual person, usually a cross-country runner). At least I’m outside being active rather than sitting in my room all day playing video games or getting drunk. On my resume it says I have a unique extracurricular. What does it say on yours “Dungeon Master”?
lee
(10/21/09 3:59pm)Report
at least this is something light and entertaining on the front page. Sick of reading about budget cuts and swine flu and depressing news.
Chris
(10/21/09 6:18pm)Report
Get em’ alyssa. Though I’m not much of a harry potter fan, the game sounds fun.
Those of you complaining, get real. You want to play, and you know it.
Kara
(10/22/09 9:29am)Report
I think it seems like fun, even if I won’t do it. And I like learning about how creative some people can be. It is stuff like this that makes the State News interesting. Good luck guys and have fun!
D
(10/22/09 1:39pm)Report
Awesome! I applaud the creativity and bravery of the people involved, and I hope that they will ignore all the haters. There is no reason to let them do their thing, I think its great and extremley entertaining!
Kimmy
(10/22/09 10:28pm)Report
I think I just found my reason to go back to school. :D How fun!
But seriously… I wonder if there are teams formed for those out of college. hmmm…