• Toke69
    280
    (I transferred this message from its original discussion site to this one with a specific heading to see if this would attract more attention.)

    For starters, I want to praise the UC Davis Intramural program. When I was there it was directed by a man whose name I can't remember, Gary Colson (?), I think, but I seem to recall that he was honored for administering a really outstanding program that gave every student a chance to extend, develop or even start playing sports that not only provided some physical exercise but allowed for social and organizational development for both men and women. Speaking for myself, I never got a chance to participate in any organized sport in high school, so it was great to be able to play football, basketball, and softball with and against my fellow students.

    In the more popular team sports, the tiered system (A,B,C levels) let a lot of student play sports who never would have had any chance at all to be part of a team. I had friends who never dreamt of playing competitive basketball, but got out on the courts and had a whole lot of fun.
  • 72Aggie
    300
    One of the great memories of my time at Davis was playing IM sports. Great exercise, great opportunity for social interaction. There was a spring touch football league in which several teams had varsity players. As close as I ever got to intercollegiate sports. I think I still have a bruise or two.
  • BlueGoldAg
    1.1k
    I think I still have a bruise or two.

    Hahaha...Oh yes, memories of touch football. One of the most nagging injuries I ever sustained was neck injury from playing touch football on a muddy turf with friends in Seattle back in the late 70's. It took me a year and a lot of physical therapy before I got back to normal. I decided to take up something safer and so I got heavily into rock climbing! :smirk:
  • Toke69
    280
    Aside from the sports themselves, I always got a laugh out of the names that some of the teams gave themselves. When I first for to Davis, the dorm teams all called themselves Pierce L, Ryerson 3, Nova, etc. but the off-campus teams gave themselves colorful names usually with some off-color innuendo, such as I Phelta Thi, Dixon U or Howard's Ballers. By my last year (and I was one of those rare birds still living in a dorm) the dorm teams had caught on and my team-mates asked me for a suggestion and I said "The Organ Grinders" which they immediately adopted.
  • BlueGoldAg
    1.1k
    :rofl: Creative, funny names!

    I remember that inner tube, water polo was a popular IM sport that was played at the Hickey pool.
  • movielover
    484
    Many of the names were extremely suggestive.
  • Toke69
    280
    The other great thing about intramural sports at UCD was the way they were given coverage by the Cal Aggie. I think I even got my name in the paper once for a softball game I did unusually well in. The Cal Aggie not only printed thumbnails of some of the games, but scores and league standings. They even had top ten rankings in football and basketball. I wonder if or how long they continued to do that? I was associated or familiar with three other universities where intramural coverage in the student paper was either non-existent or minimal (announcements about seasons or playoff schedules only).
  • 72Aggie
    300
    Then there's that school in South Bend, IN, that, at least prior to the pandemic, had a tackle football intramural league.

    I was actually pictured in the Aggie for participation in an IM sport. Lot of people wrapped their garbage with that issue.
  • Toke69
    280
    One last comment about IM sports at UCD: They were very quick and eager to allow women to play sports, including flag football and "regular" basketball. When I first got there, women were playing an odd 6 person game where only two guards were allowed to cross center court, making it a 4 on 4 game. Each player could only dribble the ball 3 times, all in the name of "saving" the women from overdoing it. As I recall that was abandoned by 1969.

    The football program caught the eye of the 49ers and a friend of mine told me she was going to play during halftime of a pre-season game, Niners v. Denver Broncos. I went down to Candlestick to watch her and her team play for about 5 minutes at halftime. Davis must have had one of the few, if not the only, such program at that time, to get the attention of an NFL team.
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