Theta Chi win Greek league intramural football championship

Amir Vera

Staff Writer

It is a frigid Tuesday night; the intramural flag-football All-Campus Championship is in overtime between the MCV league Jeparation H and the Greek league’s Theta Chi fraternity. It is Theta Chi’s ball after they have scored, so they can either go for an extra point or take the risk and go for a two-point conversion. The result: Theta Chi’s Brandon Chambers runs it in on a successful conversion to win it all over Jeparation H, 35-33.

“Those guys (MCV) had us beat; we played with eight guys and came out with the win,” Chambers said. “It feels good; four years and we finally won All-Campus.”

According to Chambers, this was the first time in five years that a Greek league team has won the championship. He along with fellow players Josh McKim and Blake Sage, who go by the “Big Three” on their team, have been playing together since their freshmen years. Each year the three have gone to the championship but have never come out with a win.

“I feel like we came through for the Greek league; they have not won Campus in five years, and the last time they won it, we (Theta Chi) won it,” Chambers said. “So, it is definitely tough trying to come back here every year. It just shows the strength that we have as a brotherhood.”

Though Theta Chi was the ultimate champions of the Greek league and All-Campus Championship, other teams also worked hard to get into the All-Campus playoffs. The teams that were included were champions of each of their own leagues. Teams included: A-League’s “TNN,” B-League’s “The Nobodies” and the MCV league’s Jeparation H. Each team was very passionate about winning the championship since this was their only exposure to college football at VCU besides what they may see on ESPN on Saturdays.

Because VCU does not currently have a football team, this intramural activity gives students the opportunity to play and/or watch some pig-skin. Players and officials of intramural flag football believe this to be somewhat of a substitute for the lack of a football team.

“I think it does for those that participate, and for those that come to watch, I think it takes the place in terms of giving them something football-oriented to either participate in or cheer about,” Bob Fankhauser, assistant director of intramural sports, said.

Others, however, feel as though it does not make up for the absence of a team. Players such as A-League TNN’s captain Tony Barron believe that because VCU is a basketball school, football does not get as much attention as it should.

“This is predominantly a basketball school. A lot of us just do not like basketball; we like to play football, too,” Barron said. “And a lot of the players are ex-college players, or kids who came and transferred from other schools that played college ball that cannot play it anymore. So this is almost like a second chance, to relive the ‘glory days.’”

No matter the view on intramural’s role in replacing actual football, though, students and players alike still enjoy the exposure to football on campus, especially the All-Campus champions of the Theta Chi fraternity.