IFC chapters play flag football for charity

A banner sporting the letters “GB” will be displayed on Woodlawn Field for the next eight weeks. The “GB” stands for the Greek Bowl, an intramural flag football league organized by Sigma Nu fraternity.

Sixteen Interfraternity Council chapters are participating in the league, said junior Andy Glovsky, Sigma Nu philanthropy chair.

The games are played from 4 to 10 p.m. every Friday, with the exception of a Thursday game Oct. 10.

Ten fraternities played in the first round of games Friday.

The winners of the five games were Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Sigma Chi, Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Alpha Mu.

The playoffs will take place Nov. 16 after an eight-week regular season.

Sigma Nu hopes to secure Mellencamp Pavilion as the location for the playoffs, Glovsky said.

The playoffs will be head-to-head matches, similar to that of March Madness. A one-day playoff tournament is scheduled for Nov. 15, with the championship game following the next day.

All donations will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Sigma Nu’s philanthropy this year.

St. Jude’s is the current leader in childhood cancer research, Glovsky said.

“St. Jude’s is completely community based, and we’ve never had something like this before for our philanthropy, so it’s nice to get something like this going,” said senior Mike Udoh, Sigma Nu President.

The games are free and any student is invited to attend, greek or non-greek, Glovsky said.

Buckets and boxes are located around the field during the games for people to submit donations.

Greek Bowl tank tops are sold at booths, and concessions of water, Gatorade, hot dogs and hamburgers are also available for purchase to benefit St. Jude’s.

“Any donation will help us reach our goal and help St. Jude’s continue their mission,” Glovsky said.

Sigma Nu aims to raise $10,000 for St. Jude’s, Glovsky said.

They have already raised $6,000 prior to the beginning of the Greek Bowl, he said, through team registrations, donation letters, contacting campus organizations and canning.

In addition, he said, they want to bring three children who have been treated by St. Jude’s to some of the Greek Bowl games during the coming weeks.

“We want them to feel like an MVP,” Glovsky said.

The philanthropy is the brainchild of Glovsky and Udoh, and it is the first year the fraternity has organized the tournament.

“We pretty much said, ‘We have an amazing idea and we need to run with it,’” Glovsky said. “It was a dual effort on both sides to get this event to where it is today.”

Both of them thought of the event last semester and worked with IU Recreational Sports to make it a reality.

“I think this event is bringing back that Friday Night Lights feeling, when we were playing football in high school,” Glovsky said.

In addition to helping St. Jude’s, Glovsky said, this league also aims to bring together greeks as a whole.

“With this event, I want to bring together the entire greek community,” he said. “We’ve had some rough roads on the outside image of greek life, and we need to change that. We need to realize we are all a community, and we shouldn’t be separated.”

Glovsky and Udoh said they also want this to be a stepping stone for future cooperation within the individual chapters themselves, Udoh said.

“We’re trying to take these greek rivalries and turn them into working towards strengthening the greek community,” he said.

Follow reporter Tori Lawhorn on Twitter @ToriLawhorn.