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Almost 1,000 Quidditch teams duel each other around the globe — including teams from Iran, Argentina, Russia, Australia, China and the United States.
Almost every team listed with the International Quidditch Association is affiliated with a college, and the list includes Harvard University, National Taiwan University and the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design.
Muggle Quidditch is a sport based on a fictional sport of the same name in J.K. Rowling’s best-selling Harry Potter series.
UNM’s team is just one in a college craze for the sport, which began seven years ago in Middlebury, Vt.
Alex Benepe and Xander Manshel, at the time students at Middlebury College, said they were sick of traditional sports that didn’t allow for any creativity, according to ESPN. So they wrote up a 39-page rulebook and started a team, and other colleges soon followed suit.
The introduction to the rulebook reads “Quidditch is something that makes people undeniably happy. The childlike freedom that comes with playing and watching it is something unprecedented.”
In 2007, the Middlebury team hosted the first Intercollegiate Quidditch Association World Cup, which included teams that paid out of pocket to fly from Washington State and Louisiana.
Benepe skipped class and didn’t hand in schoolwork in order to host the event. Many of the teams struggled to make it to the event, but after they were ranked among the “best in the world,” the teams said it will probably be easier to receive funding.
Searching for “Quidditch” on Facebook brings up more results than one can count, including a group called “You play Quidditch?
Excuse me while I take my clothes off!” The Quidditch team names are just as creative, including the Zagreb Graphorns, the Wanganui Whomping Willows, the Briarcliff Nearly Headless Nicolas Cages and the NY Badassilisks.
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