Quidditch casts spell on Spartans
Matthew Miller mrmiller@lsj.com
November 07, 2009 20:32 PM

The Rampaging Pygmy Puffs were doing warm ups, running back and forth across Michigan State University's Adams Field, brooms between their legs.

"I think anyone that's on this team isn't afraid to make a fool out of themself," said team captain Ali Warr.

This was Quidditch, the game played on flying broomsticks in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series.

Or, rather, this was Muggle (non-magical folks) Quidditch, a version of the game adapted from the books four years ago by two students at Middlebury College in Vermont.

It since has spread to more than 200 colleges and universities around the country. Eight of the 11 Big Ten schools have Quidditch teams. This year, 21 schools competed in the Quidditch World Cup.

If anything, MSU is a bit late to this particular dance. The university's six-team intramural Quidditch league was started late last year. The first game, between the Ministry of Magic and the Fizzing Whizbees, will be Sunday.

"I imagined you'd have to twist a few arms to get people to actually play Quidditch on the ground," said founder and club president Ryan Duffy, a sophomore.

He didn't. About 250 students signed up. More than 50 have stayed.

But the current generation of college students has a somewhat unique relationship with the Harry Potter books.

They were about the same age as the characters when the first book was published in the U.S. 11 years ago.