Dodgeball Canada's new sport
By Eric Nelson
On Feb. 5, 2010, the University of Alberta participated in the biggest orgy of dodgeball ever known to man, woman or beast. Cracked out on school spirit, 1200 students with 600 red rubber balls equal one crazy game of something that somewhat resembles World War II minus the gory mess.
At first glance, the video that proves this world record-setting game -- unofficially -- doesn't seem like much as the two teams of 600 are lined up across from each other on two separate basketball courts. A thick strip of red separates the two teams like a border between two countries, and ten seconds later the camera zooms in to show those 600 red balls meticulously stacked.
Originally organized by the student union as an event that would bring together both staff and students, the idea was able to garner enough support to shatter the previous Guinness world record of 450 people, set by San Diego State University.
Nick Dehod, a spokesman for the student union explained to the press, "We thought it'd be a really good event that could bring the campus together." Participants cheered, mascots danced and just about everybody sported silly looking shirts that read in big bold letters across their chest "For the Record."
The next couple of minutes on the video were dedicated to what I like to think of as controlled mayhem, as hundreds of students were firing hundreds of red balls at each other.
After the initial wave of disorder settled down, both teams seemed to apply the motto that I proudly coined back in my dodgeball heyday: "it's hard to miss with a shotgun" -- to play team ball hog and then strike with all you got.
To be fair, it's pretty hard to miss when you can just throw your ball into a crowd of people where they can't even see you unless they are on the front line; that's exactly the strategy both teams seemed to employ with varying degrees of success.
However, as in most games, all good things must come to an end. Once players were eventually picked off by the cannon fire and slunk back to their respective sidelines, it became evident that the green team just didn't have what it took to be crowned the largest dodgeball team of champions.
Despite the corny commentary given by a number of hippy looking students, the ordeal was quite the riveting show. The two minutes or so are definitely worth the watch and may inspire other random sporting events of epic proportions to take hold. Enjoy!