Who knew? Harry Potter’s favorite sport is apparently a hit across the nation’s colleges and — not to be outdone — UC Berkeley held try-outs for a Quidditch team last week.
According the the Daily Californian, there are more than 200 Quidditch collegiate teams in the US and the Quidditch World Cup is held in Middlebury, Vermont where a college team has been riding broomsticks since 2005.
The try-outs for Berkeley attracted 36 hopefuls. Team co-founder Charlie Strauss, a UC junior, said he decided to start a team after watching a Quidditch match on the East Coast. “I knew people here were dorky enough to join,” he said.
For those who have somehow avoided the Harry Potter phenomenon over the past 13 years, Quidditch is a game invented by author J. K. Rowling for her Harry Potter book series. She describes it as an extremely rough, but very popular semi-contact sport played by wizards and witches. Matches are played between two teams of seven players riding flying broomsticks, using four balls and six elevated ring-shaped goals.
Read the full story of quidditch in Berkeley here.
Hat-tip: Kim Weisberg. Photo: Warner Brothers Entertainment.
