Quidditch was once solely played in the world of Harry Potter at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As of 2005, the game — now referred to as Quadball — has been a full-fledged collegiate sport and is competed in universities across the country. This fall, NYU’s Quadball team is back in full flight at the East River Park. The team, also known as the NYU Pigeons, is rebuilding as it faces challenges spanning from filling up a roster to reckoning with the ever-changing politics of the Harry Potter fandom.
For non-Harry Potter fans and everyone else who’s confused, Quadball is a full-contact, mixed gender sport that possesses a reputation nationwide for its replication of the game — minus the magic — depicted in Harry Potter. In a proper game of Quadball, there are seven players on each team — three chasers, two beaters, one keeper and one seeker — and each player must keep their “broomstick” in between their legs at all times. While the objective of the game is for the chasers to get the quaffle through the opponent’s goalpost, the beaters fulfill their title by tackling the opposing offense with their bludger, or a dodgeball. It goes to show that the sport’s uniqueness — and relation with the magic of Harry Potter — does not take away from its intense physicality.
PVC pipes represent broomsticks, a human dressed in gold depicts the sought after golden snitch, and a volleyball acts as a quaffle that — if you get through one of the three goalposts — allows you to score at the end of the pitch. The sport fulfills a unique combination of interests, whether you are a rugby-loving tackle sport athlete, the most devoted Harry Potter fan or simply an average college student looking for an athletic and social outlet.
In their 13-year history, the Pigeons have achieved success and built a legacy within the Quadball realm. The squad ranked as the No. 1 collegiate team in the country in 2020 after winning its regional championship, and in the year prior, made it to the final four of the nationwide Quadball Cup. However, due to a drastic decrease in participation — which team president Jonathan Cain largely attributes to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic — the team has been somewhat unavailing in recent years, and is currently reassembling its limited roster. Cain’s primary goal this season is to get the word out regarding what Quadball is and why it’s unique.
“It’s exactly how it’s depicted in Harry Potter,” Cain told WSN. “It’s running, wrestling, tackling and handball, except there’s no flying. There is an intensity in the community, but no hatred, not like there is between Slytherin and Gryffindor.”
The COVID-19 pandemic is not the only factor hindering the Pigeons’ resurgence on campus. There is also a cultural deterrent. Back in 2020, J.K. Rowling, the author behind the Harry Potter series, tweeted remarks regarding the transgender community, drawing criticism from both the members and allies of the queer community, who deemed the comments transphobic and a proponent of the TERFism — trans-exclusionary radical feminist — ideology. This led to a long discussion within US Quadball, the sport’s national organization, as they faced both internal and external pressure to disassociate from the Harry Potter franchise. Quidditch was officially renamed to Quadball in July of 2022 as a consequence of Rowling’s statements.
“I remember really feeling the magic of it all,” graduate student and team member Annie Bennett said. “There were all these people who came together and made up a new sport because of how fun it sounds in these books, and how connected to these stories people are. But I think these days, especially with the name change, you don’t feel that connection.”
The current generation of college students is the same one that grew up at the height of Harry Potter’s popularity, so for many who object to Rowling and her ongoing stance, the sport is now dissuading on new levels.
“I understand why they’ve strayed away from it,” Bennett said. “And I was definitely a little disappointed because I think that Harry Potter is so much bigger than J.K. Rowling.”
Despite these controversies — both among Harry Potter fans globally and right here at NYU — Quadball and its eccentric legacy continues, and there is still some magic to be found. Whatever you boil the game down to, or whatever you may call it, Quadball is for anyone willing to put themselves out there, defy the affiliated stereotypes and disclaimers or in Bennett’s words, “embarrass themselves a little bit.”
“I want people to understand that it’s silly and fun,” Bennett said. “At its core it is people running around on PVC pipes. But it can also suck having to always do the disclaimer when I tell people that I play, and them being like, ‘So what, do you like, fly?’”
Contact Levi Langley at [email protected].
