Amy King / Design Editor / ak131405@ohiou.edu

Harry Potter fans, grab your robes and dust off your broomsticks — Muggle quidditch could be on its way to Athens.

Freshmen Taylor Evans and Brian Goren conjured up the “OHIO University Quidditch” Facebook group at the end of last quarter with the intent of creating an intramural quidditch league.

Once membership reaches 200, Evans and Goren said they will pitch the league to OU’s Intramural Sports office. The group  now has 134 members.

Muggle quidditch, played without flying broomsticks, mimics the game played at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the best-selling Harry Potter series, Goren explained. In the books, “Muggle” refers to someone without magical powers.

It was first developed at Middlebury College in Vermont three years ago as a club sport by juniors  Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe, who adapted the rules from the J.K. Rowling series, according to USA Today.

The college hosted a quidditch tournament last fall, with 12 teams from Middlebury and one from Vassar College, Benepe said. His Facebook group boasts more than 2,800 members from almost every state in the country, he said.

“There’s definitely a future for it,” Benepe said.

Of 130 collegiate teams listed on the Facebook group, Ohio State University, Oberlin College and Kenyon College are the only Ohio schools.

OSU’s group is set to start matches next fall. Sophomore Emma Foxall, the student in charge of about 30 Quidditch players, said regular practices boosted interest on campus.

“It’s just fun because it’s a lot harder than it looks,” she said.

Quidditch entered popular culture in 1998 with Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling’s first installment in the <span style="font-style: italic">Harry Potter</span> series. The game’s complex rules involve four magical balls and seven players.

In the novels and movies, students fly broomsticks such as the Firebolt 3000 over the field chasing the quaffle, two bludgers and the golden snitch. Teams score points when one of the three players, called chasers, throw the quaffle through one of three goal posts at each end of the field guarded by a keeper.

Two players, named beaters, hit the bludgers toward opposing players, trying to knock them off their broom. The game ultimately ends when a player called the seeker catches the small snitch.

Without magical broomsticks, chasers score by throwing a flat soccer ball representing the quaffle through goals made with trashcans or hula-hoops. Beaters hit dodgeball bludgers with tennis rackets. A player hit with a bludger must run around the field once to simulate falling off a broom, Goren said.

And to top it off, all players must keep a broom between their legs.

“Because it wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t for the broomsticks,” Goren said.

The biggest difference between intramural quidditch and the version played in Rowling’s books — aside from the lack of flying balls and broomsticks — is the role of the snitch.

Evans said that in the official intercollegiate rules, a player dressed in all yellow replaces the tiny, winged ball that wizard seekers chase after. That player then takes off on foot and the teams’ seekers give chase. The snitch is not limited to just the field of play. Instead, he or she could have the entire campus to evade seekers.

“Imagine that everyone knows why a kid is running around in yellow and then other kids start getting in the way when they see someone chasing him,” Goren said.

Evans added that the sport could definitely catch on and be funny if the whole campus got involved.

Bradley Whittaker, director of Intramural and Club Sports, said his office is always looking for new additions. He said he hasn’t gotten wind of the potential new sport, but intramurals would definitely have to consider budget restrictions before
moving forward.

“It’s something that’s possible,” Whittaker said, “but first we would have to look into doing it as a special event to see what kind of interest it draws.”

Evans and Goren predicted relatively low costs to get their idea off the ground, which would likely include referees and equipment such as broomsticks and hula-hoops, which they said could be covered by a sign-up fee.

“It’s not like you need a Firebolt 3000 and new flying technology. If they have it, yeah we’ll take it, but at this point we’re perfectly fine running around with a broomstick between our legs,” Goren said.