WSU Intramural Sports Program Is Biggest In West

PULLMAN - To paraphrase former Chicago Cub Ernie Banks: It's such a great evening for softball, let's play till midnight.

At Washington State University, they do.

Fielding the largest intramural sports program west of the Mississippi, WSU each year sees roughly half its students compete in as many as four sports per individual, signing up for everything from flag football to coed inner-tube water polo.

Nearly 15,000 players took part in the program last year, filling fields and indoor facilities sometimes seven days a week from late afternoon till after midnight. Counting special events like the recent Dad's Weekend Boxing Smoker and next winter's Freeze Your Buns Run, the program will offer 32 activities this year.

``I suppose any way you look at it, we're one of the largest programs in the country,'' program director Mary Ann Steele said.

``It's something to get the adrenaline going and have a good study break,'' said John McGuire, a sophomore transfer student from Gonzaga University, as he waited to play coed indoor soccer. ``It's fun to be out there playing.''

More than 1,600 teams compete each year on A, B and C levels, with the championship T-shirt from the highly competitive A level ranking as the ultimate trophy for would-be big men and women on campus.

``It means a lot to have an intramural championship T-shirt,'' Steele said. ``That's the prize on campus.''

Yet the program is not all fun and games.

Steele and more than 200 student officials, supervisors and event coordinators must regularly deal with scheduling hassles, a lack of lighted outdoor space and officiating duties.

Then there are arguments over whether badminton birdies should be made of plastic or feathers.

Last year, the Intramural Council, a student-run judicial body, held 179 hearings, Steele said. The council ruled on protests, professional baseball players trying to play softball against eligibility regulations and pugnacious spoilsports who couldn't handle the agony of defeat.

It can get surprisingly intense, said council chairman Ryan Radovich, a marketing and management major.

``It's just like college ball out there,'' he said.

WSU's tradition of intramural sports began back in 1908 with J. Fred ``Doc'' Bohler, the athletic director until 1950 for whom Bohler Gymnasium was named.

``He was just a guy that loved to see kids playing games - any kind,'' Dick Fry, WSU sports historian, said.

In more recent years, the program has been shifted from the Department of Physical Education, Sport and Leisure Studies to the Division of Student Affairs, with funding coming from student activity fees, entry fees and the WSU's Parents' Association.

Since the early 1980s, the staff has grown from a single part-time director to a full-time director with two assistants. In just the past four years, the budget has gone from $130,000 to $182,000.

But in spite of the growth, the program has not seen its activities change dramatically with shifts in athletic tastes, Steele said.

``California schools are always trying different things - more fad kinds of things,'' said Steele, who has been part of intramural programs at six different universities. ``Being Pullman or Washington State, we don't get into fads as much as bread-and-butter kinds of things.''

In 1985, softball had the most participants, followed by flag football, basketball, volleyball, and spring soccer. Flag football has drawn the most participants since 1988, but otherwise things have been pretty much the same.

Yet while popularity of games stays roughly the same, the rules change - and with a measure of controversy.

The latest concerns the flag football program, which last fall had more than 4,000 students playing on 338 male, female and coed teams. For now, players are allowed to block each other, but the Intramural Council's perennial concerns about safety are forcing it to consider making it a non-contact sport.

Radovich said the change would add more finesse to the game, but he acknowledged that the hard knocks would be sorely missed.

``Everybody doesn't want us to switch,'' he said. ``That's football - you like to get down in the mud and get physical, and if you make it non-contact, it takes that away.''

Still, the overall program remains one of the best diversions in the isolation of the Palouse wheat fields.

``If you were in Seattle, you'd have a lot of other choices, but here you don't have those choices,'' Steele said.