News Highlights

Theater students play football on Saturdays to bond

Actors and actresses from Minnesota State University’s theater department get together every Saturday rain or shine to play in the Theatre Football League.

2006-04-09
By Robb Murray Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN 4/28/2005]

MANKATO — It began a few years ago as a pick-up football game and a group of guys talkin' smack about who could whup who.

Today, the actors and actresses from Minnesota State University's theater department get together every Saturday rain or shine to play in the Theatre Football League (TFL). They keep "stats." Circulate a newsletter. Maintain a Web site. Play week in and week out for the title of Supper Bowl Champion.

No, that's not a typo. It's the Supper Bowl. And yes, we're serious about it being theater people.

Go to Mankato's Ray Erlandson Park any Saturday when MSU is in session and you'll find them there, playing their particular brand of three-hand-touch football. The TFL has multiple teams, a "commissioner," a "director of football operations," playoffs, fans, and rumor has it there were even a few cheerleaders there once.

They have a draft day. There are coaches. Incoming freshmen, in some cases, already know about it by the time they get to campus.

"It's really this social gathering that everyone looks forward to on Saturday," said Jason Harber, a theater department alum who lives in Seattle but remains the TFL's commissioner.

It began a few years ago when Harber, then an underclassman, and Trick Danneker — both of whom love football — began talking with a few upperclassmen about football. One thing led to another and, eventually, enough friendly venom was exchanged so that some things needed to be proven on the field.

From there it just sort of grew. They played a few more games. Then a few more. Eventually, people were starting to really enjoy getting together.

Fast forward to now. For the spring league, more than 40 people signed up to play. The start of each new semester comes with the start of a new league.

"We're all pretty close," said student Trick Danneker, the TFL's president of football operations (which means he brings the ball). "The theater department is a pretty closely knit community. And this kind of brings together a lot of people who maybe wouldn't normally hang out on a weekend."

Once the players are signed up, they decide upon coaches and then hold a "draft." Once teams are finalized, the season gets under way. The first week is fun week. Then they play a game of underclassmen vs. upperclassmen. Then it's gets "serious."

The league motto: "Come see the show!"

"Because a lot of times it ends up being a slapstick comedy," Harber said. "A lot of times you get people who aren't very athletic."

A newsletter comes out regularly with fictitious league stats and articles ala The Onion, the popular humor newspaper full of fake news. After the riots that made national news, the newsletter, called the TWIT (This Week In the TFL), reported that the riots erupted when one of the TFL teams lost.

They concede the juxtaposition is odd — Shakespeare during the week, touchdowns on the weekends. But that's part of the fun.

"We've always found that kind of funny," Harber said. "Theater guys have a stereotype, and football is the exact opposite of that."

And it's not all guys, either. They say that while each team has seven or eight men, it will also have three or four women. Athleticism, be it male or female, is optional.

The TFL's future, however, is uncertain.

Harber's involvement is going to be scaled back next year. And Danneker is graduating in May. Three of the five coaches will still be around, but the guys who gave birth to the TFL will be gone, and a new crop will be responsible for running the show.

Danneker says he's not sure what will happen.

"What we did with it was kind of unique," Danneker said. "If (the younger students) did keep up with it, I don't think it would be the same. And that's OK."

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