I played 2 seasons of inter-hall football for Holy Cross Hall, in 1988 and 1989. Our hall mascot and the name of all our teams was the “Hogs”. In the time I was there, I don’t remember winning very many games, but I do remember having a great time and creating a lot of fun memories with my teammates. We were a rag-tag bunch on the field, which fit the persona of Holy Cross Hall perfectly. We did excel in the area of dorm spirit, however, and I fondly remember the giant pink, plywood pig (on wheels) that was literally wheeled out to the sideline for all our games (intimidating for opposing teams I’m sure). We practiced on an unkempt patch of dirt and weeds out in front of our dorm (which was on the opposite side of St. Mary’s Lake). The practice field was pitched downhill and we shared it with the resident gophers. One day, on the last play of practice, I ran full speed into one of those gopher holes and went down like a ton of bricks. A couple of other Hogs were walking back to the dorm from campus and witnessed the whole thing unfold. They thought it would be funny to call the NDFD and report an “injured player” on the lawn. Before I could gather myself and limp off the field, 2 fire trucks roared up the walking path and pulled in beside me. A paramedic jumped out, immobilized my ankle and cut my sock and cleat off. My teammates and the guys who called it in were laughing hysterically (and so was I…kind of). I waived off the fire trucks and walked gingerly back to the dorm on my barefoot sprained ankle. Back in the dorm, I wrapped it in an Ace bandage and we quickly packed up for a road trip to East Lansing to watch the Irish play MSU that weekend. The NDFD call was obviously overkill, but also pretty funny, and I remember returning from East Lansing in the nick of time for our inter-hall game Sunday morning. Of course, I had to play the game in sneakers because my cleats were ruined. That’s just one little memory of how we bonded and had fun in inter-hall football. It was more about the friendships and laughs than playing high-level football, but we definitely enjoyed pulling on the pads and banging for a couple of hours on Sunday.

Anecdote provided 30 December 2022