Sprint Football's biggest cheerleader

I vividly remember standing on Hill Field during New Student Orientation my freshman year, when I was approached by an attractive female cheerleader. This isn't supposed to be happening, I thought to myself. She's good-looking and I'm not. I'm only a freshman. Older girls don't talk to freshman guys. This is too good to be true.

Sure enough, it was. She handed me a flyer and asked if I'd be interested in joining the cheerleading squad. When I told her I wasn't, she responded, "That's OK. You're not really big enough anyway."

Ouch! I had been tall and lanky for many years at that point, but certainly didn't think I was too small for cheerleading. Who did this girl think she was anyway? I was definitely big enough to hold her up. I figured I would never see her again, but I was wrong. She's now engaged to one of my fraternity brothers, and we laugh about our Hill Field encounter to this day.

Nevertheless, I was permanently scarred. I was told that I wasn't cut out for a sport not because I wasn't good enough, but because of my size. And that sport was cheerleading, no less. Oh well, I wasn't planning on playing a sport in college anyway, so who really cares?

Fortunately for me, there was an answer to that question. The sprint football team cares. One of my hallmates from freshman year became a star defensive lineman for the team and incessantly bugged me to come out and play. By the time I was a senior, I had finally run out of excuses. I had a full-time job secured for after graduation and no time commitments in the evening. So I made the trek down to the locker room in the Hollenback Center and never came back.

Playing sprint football was one of the best experiences I've had at Penn. They say it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. That saying couldn't be more true for the 50-plus guys who put on pads and helmets each day from August to November to knock the living daylights out of each other. What do these 50 players have in common? They all weigh under 166 pounds and play football for the love of the game.

Sprint football is no joke -- it's real hard-nosed football, and many regard it as being more exciting than "regular" football, as the game is more fast-paced and a defensive lineman has the ability to run down a tailback. Princeton, Cornell, Army and Navy field teams each year in the Collegiate Sprint Football League, which has been featured in an NFL Films documentary that aired on ESPN and ESPN2.

It's no secret that every young boy (even us skinny ones) dreams of playing football under the lights at a Division I school. However, since I had never played organized football in my life, I figured that playing at the college level was out of the question. But at the urging of my friend, and the encouragement of Bill Wagner, Dan Harrell and the rest of the sprint football coaching staff, I stuck with it, and even earned a varsity letter for my troubles. Playing at Franklin Field and making hits in big-time games against Army and Navy made the whole experience worthwhile.

But perhaps the biggest takeaway was my new family. I played side-by-side with a bunch of guys who played football because they were passionate about the game. Each player had responsibilities off the field -- studying for the MCATs, applying to law school, interviewing for jobs, tutoring fellow students or even dancing for Strictly Funk -- but each of them showed up each day with a burning desire just to play football.

None of the players did it for the glory or the fame. Sprint football has been played at Penn for over 70 years, and not a single player has made it to the NFL. However, if history is any indication, many of the players have a bright future ahead of them off the field. Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, played sprint football at the Naval Academy, and current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was the captain of Princeton's team.

Of course, it's possible that I was completely fooled by my sprint football teammates. Some may have played in hopes of gaining 100 pounds and making it to the NFL. Others may have played for the groupies. Perhaps they all wanted to be on the cheer squad, but were told they were "not really big enough." Hey, we can't all be cheerleaders. For those of you who are too small, I recommend sprint football.

Conor O'Callaghan is a senior in the Management and Technology program from Scottsdale, Ariz. The OC appears on Fridays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.