NEWS

CHAPEL HILL -- On March 22, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will host its most unusual sporting event of the season: American Indian stickball.

The exhibition game, estimated to last about 90 minutes, will involve the Paint Town Stickball Team from Cherokee and the Flying Rats from Athens, Ga.

The match will begin at 9 a.m. at Hooker Field on South Road (next to Carmichael Auditorium), and the event is free to the public. Jerry Wolfe from the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, an expert on traditional stickball and a 2002 N.C. Heritage Award recipient, will accompany the players to offer commentary and answer questions.

Stickball, the forerunner of modern lacrosse, is an ancient game that southeastern American Indians called the "little brother to war." Requiring many of the same skills and rituals as war, stickball historically settled disputes between towns and sometimes between tribes. Today, the game is played with teams of 10 players, each using two wooden sticks similar to lacrosse sticks. Like the modern version, the object of the game is to score goals with a ball. It is a bruising contact sport, played in bare feet and without pads. More information on stickball can be found on the Flying Rats’ Web site at www.uga.edu/~toli/home.html.

The Paint Town Stickball Team is one of several teams that play regularly in the Cherokee communities of western North Carolina.

"Cherokee teams rarely travel this far to play a game," said UNC anthropologist Dr. Brett Riggs. "Having the opportunity to see them in Chapel Hill is truly special."

The Cherokee team will be joined on the field by the Flying Rats, a club team from the University of Georgia. Their name is derived from a Creek Indian story about a stickball match between the birds and the four-footed animals, in which a "flying rat" – a bat – turned the tide of the game and helped the four-footed animals to win.

This event is made possible through a grant from the Intellectual Life Program of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence at UNC.

Other UNC sponsors include the Research Laboratories of Archaeology; the departments of anthropology, and of recreation and leisure studies; the curriculums in peace, war and defense, and of American Studies; the Office of Student Affairs; the Graduate School; the Center for the Study of the American South; and the Carolina Indian Circle.

In the event of inclement weather, the rain date will be April 26.

For more information, contact Dr. Theda Perdue at tperdue@email.unc.edu or Dr. Vin Steponaitis at (919) 962-3846 or vin@unc.edu.

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News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415