For many seniors, the quickly approaching graduation date means one of three things. You will either a) finally have the chance to break free of the academia that has ruled your existence since you were in diapers and begin your real life saving the world and making millions of dollars, b) continue on to grad school in an attempt to avoid the harsh reality of actually growing up, or c) take your liberal arts degree and march dutifully into the abyss.
But for those of you soon-to-be-alums (as well as any underclassmen hoping to get a head start on those future plans), I have another alternative that promises success, fame, fortune and maybe even a date with an attractive member of the opposite sex. Ready? All you have to do is (drum roll please)... invent a sport.
"Wait!," you might be asking. "How can making up a game bring me all the perks of a six figure salary job and offset my Jumbo-esque good looks?" The answer to this valid question lies way back in 1995, before any of us had even reached middle school.
Recess was all the rage back in 1995. It was the time when elementary schoolers got to burn off the excess energy generated by being 10 years old on such amusements as tetherball, four square, kickball and freeze tag. My fifth grade class embraced these games for a while, but we soon tired of these fun, yet clich?© playground sports. My remarkably creative friends and I decided to not just abandon the typical recess activities in exchange for other established games, but rather to invent a sport all our own.
And just like that, Regball was born.
The game was played with two teams and a soccer ball. It resembled a cross between rugby, soccer, football and 500. Each team consisted of anywhere from five to 15 players, depending on how many kids wanted to play and how much space we had on which to run. The object of the game was similar to football in that a team had to get the ball into an end zone. Kicking the ball across the goal line meant three points, running it across earned five and passing it in the air (with a punt or forward pass) for a reception merited a whopping 10 points. The first team to 30, or the team closest to it when the recess-ending whistle blew, won the game, as well as bragging rights until the next day.
A player was ruled down if he or she was tagged by a member of the other team, just like in touch football. Teams had four opportunities, called "ups" (genius, I know) to score before turning the ball over to the other side. The ball was worked up the field either by kicked forward passes on the ground, backward overhand passes in the air, long distance punts, or forward underhand passes in the air. A forward overhand pass, backward underhand pass or line drive kick forward or backward immediately resulted in a loss of possession called a "reg."
My four best guy friends and I codified Regball during lunch one day by outlining these rules with those deliciously smelling markers that just don't taste as good as they smell. (Come on, you know you tried it once.) Eventually, Regball caught on with the other grades and took over the playground, at least for a few months. My class even drafted a copy of the rules and taught the sport to our gym teacher in hopes that our game would become a Cherokee Trail Elementary tradition created by the fifth grade class of 1996.
Now, you may be asking, how does this made-up school yard game have any bearing on your future as a Tufts graduate? The short answer is, honestly, it doesn't. It does, however, illustrate that new games can be made up at any time by anyone, and that all it takes is a little boredom and a little ingenuity.
And if a new game catches on, who knows? You, humble Jumbo, could be the creator of the next national pastime! Baseball itself, just like Regball, was a hybrid of schoolyard games like cricket, rounders and town ball. Abner Doubleday (according to legend) simply fused together various sports one day while sitting next to a lake in Cooperstown, New York. In doing so, he gave birth to a national phenomenon!
Bill Naismith invented basketball so the members of his YMCA would have another game to play in their spare time. Now look at the NBA and the madness that culminated on Monday night! NASCAR came about because of illegal drag racing and now is one of the most popular sports in the country! The possibilities for new sports are endless, and their beginnings only rely upon a little bit of creativity and some free time, two things widely available to many recent college grads.
The only bad news, at least in the historic cases of many of today's major sport inventors, is that most of the excitement about new sports arrives long after their inceptions. I don't think Joe Naismith ever earned royalties from the NBA. However, Tufts kids are smart (just ask us) and probably won't have a problem speeding up the popularization process.
I mean, if "American Idol" can become an overnight national sensation, who's to say your sport can't too? If all you need for insta-TV ratings are a washed up singer (a la Paula Abdul) and a bitingly blunt British bloke (alliterative speak for Simon Cowell), then popularizing a new sport should be a piece of cake.
The world is about to become the Class of 2006's oyster, and it won't be long before the college bubble will pop for the classes of '07, '08 and even you '09ers as well. So instead of choosing the abyss, make like my fifth grade class and invent a sport. You could be the next Abner Doubleday.
Kristy Cunningham is a senior majoring in philosophy. She can be reached at kristen.cunningham@tufts.edu
