Harry Potter Fans Form UT Quidditch League

By randyramirez in Blog on March 11, 2010 at 9:07 am | 16 Comments

Texas and A&M have found a new sport to contest the Longhorn-Aggie rivalry — quidditch.

Yes, that quidditch. Made famous at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter series, the sport has arrived in the Lone Star state.

The Daily Texan reports today that some 50 students who have formed UT’s first league, Texas Quidditch. Its Facebook group  has gained more than 300 fans already.

Middlebury College in Vermont founded the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association in 2007, and 200 teams from around the world have signed up since then.

The association adapted rules for the game from those laid out by Rowling in the novels. They remained as true as possible, but of course tweaked a few rules — like that the game is played while flying on broom. Real-life players still “ride” brooms; they just stay on the ground.

A&M is hosting a quidditch tournament in April that UT’s teams — that’s right, plural — plan to attend. And then all eyes are on the World Cup, at which A&M placed seventh last year.

There’s no doubt this Lone Star Showdown will be as intense as the rest.

For more on Texas Quidditch and the game itself, check out the Texan’s article here.