The newest sport on campus is one of the oldest on record.
Earlier this year Notre Dame became the first college in the
United States with a hurling program, according to the Irish graduate
student who organized the program.
Hurling, which this fall will become an official club sport,
is considered by many to be the fastest and oldest field sport
on earth. Played by the Celts as early as 600 B.C., it's Ireland's
national sport and remains immensely popular there. But in America,
hurling clubs typically are found only in major cities.
The Notre Dame club got going last fall when members of the
campus Gaelic Society, founded in 2002 to exhibit Irish traditions
on campus, began practicing side-by-side with people playing catch
with softballs and Frisbees on the lawns of North Quad.
The Hurling Club now boasts more than 60 members who practiced
three times a week inside Stepan Center during winter months.
The club was founded by biology graduate student Gerry Quinn,
a native of Ireland who hopes hurling will one day become a popular
intramural sport on campus. He also launched a campus program
in Gaelic football, another ancient Irish sport similar to soccer
but which allows use of hands to bat the ball. The Gaelic football
program would also be a first on a U.S. campus, Quinn says.
In hurling, two 15-player teams compete on a field approximately
1½ times the size of a football field. The goal is to hit the
sliothar (a ball about the size and hardness of a baseball)
through H-shaped goal posts. Players carry a 3-foot oar of brushed
ash called a hurley, which they use to lift the ball
and propel it toward the goal or a teammate. The action is similar
to how a baseball coach tosses a ball in the air and then hits
practice grounders or flies.
With hurleys swinging and players wearing a minimum
of protective gear -- this year's players didn't even have helmets
(fund raising is ongoing) -- hurling is a rough sport. But Notre
Dame's novice players said they liked trying something new, even
at the cost of bruised knuckles and shins.
(July 2003)
