Football
(By "football," of course, I mean soccer.)
Yesterday several of the religious student groups held an interfaith football tournament. I played for the Catholic Society; the Jewish Society, Intercollegiate Christian Union, and Secular Society also attended, and the Hindu and Sikh Societies fielded a combined team.
The whole event was rather rushed and informal, more like a quick series of pick-up games than an organized tournament. There were two fields, reserved for a total of an hour and a half, so we played 30-minute matches and ran out of time before every pair of teams could compete. As far as I know, there wasn't even a final ranking; perhaps this was a good thing, since it meant that nobody could claim the results as support for their own faith. Anyway, here are the results from the Catholic Society matches:
Lost to the Jewish Society, 1 - 0
Won against the Christian Union, 1 - 0
Lost to the Secular Society (at almost the last minute), 2 - 1
There wasn't actually much religion-related banter or heckling. I did hear one priceless bit of sideline talk during the game against the (mostly Protestant) Christian Union: "I don't mind losing to the Jews -- they were here before us -- but we have at least fifteen hundred years on these guys."
Somehow, the very concept of an interfaith sports tournament seems a little too politically incorrect for the U.S. This is unfortunate, because it was good fun for all involved, and makes a hilarious conversation topic. I could imagine something similar happening at IU only if it were turned into an event to foster religious cooperation (perhaps putting a representative of each faith on every team).
Yesterday several of the religious student groups held an interfaith football tournament. I played for the Catholic Society; the Jewish Society, Intercollegiate Christian Union, and Secular Society also attended, and the Hindu and Sikh Societies fielded a combined team.
The whole event was rather rushed and informal, more like a quick series of pick-up games than an organized tournament. There were two fields, reserved for a total of an hour and a half, so we played 30-minute matches and ran out of time before every pair of teams could compete. As far as I know, there wasn't even a final ranking; perhaps this was a good thing, since it meant that nobody could claim the results as support for their own faith. Anyway, here are the results from the Catholic Society matches:
Lost to the Jewish Society, 1 - 0
Won against the Christian Union, 1 - 0
Lost to the Secular Society (at almost the last minute), 2 - 1
There wasn't actually much religion-related banter or heckling. I did hear one priceless bit of sideline talk during the game against the (mostly Protestant) Christian Union: "I don't mind losing to the Jews -- they were here before us -- but we have at least fifteen hundred years on these guys."
Somehow, the very concept of an interfaith sports tournament seems a little too politically incorrect for the U.S. This is unfortunate, because it was good fun for all involved, and makes a hilarious conversation topic. I could imagine something similar happening at IU only if it were turned into an event to foster religious cooperation (perhaps putting a representative of each faith on every team).
1 Comments:
Hey, if we're un-PC enough to have raced-based Survivor, we can have a interfaith football tournament. The brutal kind of football, I mean, of course.
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