It’s what we all strive for, it will haunt you in your sleep, and it’s the most coveted prize to receive on campus. I am talking about the intramural championship t-shirt.
The joke that travels around campus for those who are avid participants in intramurals is that you can only graduate until after you win an intramural championship t-shirt. Campus Recreation does a fantastic job of organizing intramural events and breaks the year up into fall sports, winter sports, and spring sports. They also throw a bunch of different one-day tournaments, which always draw some big crowds.
The O-mazing Race where teams of two compete in mental and physical challenges across campus
Campus Rec. also splits up the type of league you want to enter in, whether its women’s, Co-Ed, or men’s, and you would either pick to enter the recreational league or the competitive league. The kicker however comes in the form of you can only win a t-shirt if you compete in the competitive league.
I have been very fortunate enough to win my fair share of championship t-shirts, however I have also been on the receiving end of the pure heartbreak of letting one slip through my fingers. I’m not going to lie it’s absolutely devastating when you lose, like you are going to be bitter for a solid week… well I was bitter for a solid week. I have competed in both the women’s and Co-Ed competitive league sports and have met my best friends and also worst enemies (cough Rhonda’s Angels) being involved in theses leagues.
To be honest there is something a lot more gratifying in my eyes when you win a Co-Ed championship. The reason I say this is because all the men and women on the team need each other, you can’t win strictly on how good either your guys or your girls are but whether how well you all work together as a team. That’s the flaw in a lot of the Co-Ed teams because they fail to balance out the talent in one gender or the other.
Intramural sports are universal and timeless. My dad went to Oswego as well and when I told him I won my first ever intramural championship my freshman year he sent me a picture of him and his team winning in the same sport his freshman year. It built an even stronger bond between my dad and I, knowing that we both accomplished the same sport, at the same age, on the same field, at the same school.
Oswego intramural coed softball champs 1979 to 2013
Overall what I am trying to get across is that if you never participate in an intramural sport in college did you really go to college? But all jokes aside campus rec. provides this incredible opportunity to compete against your fellow students, earn the best bragging rights, and most importantly look good in that t-shirt.