Muggle Quidditch

Mellissa G. Brown
8 December 2009
Muggle Quidditch: The Magical Sport in the Non-Magical World
One of the exciting aspects of the Harry Potter series is the interesting game of Quidditch which J.K. Rowling invented for her magical world. However, this pretend sport from a fictional, magical world has been transformed and given a muggle makeover. While it was difficult to translate this magical sport in a non-magical way, if anyone could figure out how to do it was Harry Potter fans.
Since Harry Potter has such a dedicated and obsessive fan base, it is not surprising that fans have taken their obsession one step farther. Many colleges are starting to form Quidditch teams to represent their schools. Some colleges that already have Quidditch teams include Miami University, Middlebury, Syracuse University, Indiana University, Ohio University, Louisiana State University, Boston University, Harvard, and Texas A&M. There are also high schools that are forming their own Quidditch league for the high school level. Muggle Quidditch is very similar to the magical Quidditch with a few adjustments and the muggle sport is growing in popularity
The first major adjustment is that obviously Muggle Quidditch is not played up in the air since, unfortunately, our brooms cannot fly. However, Muggle Quidditch is still played on broomsticks. It is required that all players have a broomstick, that one hand remains on the broomstick and the broomstick remains between the players legs at all times. At tournaments, the brooms that are used resemble real Harry Potter brand brooms such as the Nimbus Two Thousand and the Firebolt. In practice, anything can be used as a broom. Examples of items used as broomsticks include mops, lacrosse sticks, plungers, and PVC pipes.
The next adjustment that was required was the balls. The biggest change is the Snitch. The Harry Potter Snitch is a little golden ball with wings that arbitrarily flies around and must be caught by the Seeker. Since we do not have anything like this, a person is used as a replacement. This person is a neutral player and wears all yellow to represent the Golden Snitch. Then the player has a ball with a flag attached to it tucked into his or her pocket. The job of the seeker is to capture the ball and flag or “Snitch” to end the game.
Bludgers in Muggle Quidditch are dodge balls instead of the ball and bat combination from the books. There are two Beaters on each team and there are three Bludgers in the game. The goal of the Beaters is to hit other players with the dodge balls. After a player is hit, they have to immediately drop any ball that they are holding and run and tag up at their end of the field by running around the hoops. This action is called the Knockout Effect. Beaters can make a huge impact in a game of Muggle Quidditch because they can protect their own players and defeat players from the other team.
Chasers are exactly the same as in magical Quidditch except that since the players are on the ground and not flying, the hoops are only about seven feet off the ground instead of forty. The Keeper also has the same job of defending the hoops and keeping the other team from scoring. The Keeper has their own Goal Zone and Keeper Safety Zone. When inside this zone they are immune to Bludges and The Knockout Effect. When outside the Keeper Zone, the Keeper is subject to all the same rules as Chasers. Players are also allowed to kick the ball up to one time, except the Keeper who while in The Keeper Zone is allowed to kick the ball as many times as he or she would like.
Just as in magical Quidditch, Muggle Quidditch is a contact sport and is a violent sport with injuries. Players of Quidditch are allowed to remove the ball from other players’ hands, push, shove, grab with one hand, shoulder or body checking, slide tackling, and tripping. In the rules it specifically states that creativity is encouraged. Miami University’s Quidditch team, which was founded this year, has already had several serious injuries. One of the players tore his meniscus, one player got a concussion after hitting her head, and a girl was sent to the hospital to get stitches in her forehead after colliding with another player and his broom.
There are penalties as a result of illegal physical contact. The types of contact include cape grabbing, punching, slapping, headlocks or any physical contact directed toward the head or neck, assaulting the Snitch, and body tackling another player. The penalties for any of these types of physical contact are sixty seconds in the penalty zone, or a yellow wand which means a warning, or a red wand which is expulsion from the game.
Anyone who does not think that Quidditch is a real sport should attempt to play. With all the physical contact and injuries, it should not only be considered a sport, but a ‘dangerous contact sport’. It also takes a lot of athletic ability to play the various positions. The positions in Quidditch are basically a combination of other sports such as basketball, soccer, dodge ball, tag, track, and football. There also is no time limit to a game of Quidditch. Games of Quidditch could potentially take hours to play which will wear down players more than sports that only last a specific amount of time.
This transformation from fiction to sport shows the dedication of the Harry Potter fan base. Now fans of the Harry Potter series can experience the world of Harry Potter in a way they have never been able to do through the books or movies. Harry Potter fans, or perhaps a better term would be fanatics, truly love the Harry Potter series and the game of Muggle Quidditch is a way for them to come together with other fans and play a sport from the books. The book series has been brought to life in more ways than just the transfer of this one sport. They sell the robes, the wands, the candies, and even the books they read in stores. Universal Studios is even building the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in their Orland Theme Park and it will open in the spring of 2010. Quidditch is just another way the book series has been brought to life and fans can experience the wizarding world in a non-magical version.