Stritch's Powderpuff football game is an annual M1 vs. M2 event (first-year vs. second-year medical students) where the girls play flag football and the guys are the cheerleaders. With this year's game just around the corner, it seems like an appropriate time for me to post a few images from last year's game -- a brutal event that almost ended the tradition forever.
Alicia was on the M1 team last year (wearing light-blue shirts), and the odds were stacked against them. They knew that no M1 team had ever won a Powderpuff game, but they didn't know that that was because it was "tradition" that the M2s would turn "flag" football into a knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred, full-contact, bone-crunching blood sport. (Conveniently, the "referees" were students from the M2 class.) Clothing was torn, hair was pulled (instead of flags), ribs were bruised, teeth were knocked out, enemies were made, and the administration nearly put the kibosh on the event for good.
This year, Alicia's class is in charge as the new M2s, and they've decided to clean up the game. Budget funds have been diverted from the purchase of beer kegs to the hiring of legitimate refs for the game, and no hanky-panky will be tolerated.
Last year's combination of the excessively muddy field and the M2s' wanton violence provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture these overly-competitive young women beating the pulp out of each other. With sunny weather and referees in the forecast this year, I don't expect my images from this year's game to be anywhere near as compelling as these. ;]
Enjoy!
Kudos to the Stritch '13 women for putting up with that "flag" football! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been smiling after playing in this game. (I probably would have been in the hospital.) ;]