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Bradley Bowl-ed over: Students lose to faculty

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The pigskin flew around on Bradley’s campus once again for a brief time during Homecoming weekend when students and staff took part in the Bradley Bowl, held on Alumni Quad.

The event, hosted by someone the Student Activities Office (SAO), pitted students from all parts of campus against various faculty members, including Vice President of Student Affairs Nathan Thomas.

After the teams traded interceptions to start the game, the faculty team put the first points on the board after going for it on fourth down. That seven point deficit was as close as the game would get, despite two second-half pick sixes by the students.

The faculty won the Bradley Bowl 45-25, their second straight victory.

After the game, Thomas said the student defense was tougher than the final score indicated.

“They played a little defense,” Thomas said. “[Gebert], has really long arms and those are hard to play against. We dinked and dunked them a little bit, and that got them sucked up so we could go for the long ball.”

Sophomore industrial engineering major Rachel Levine coordinated the event and said while she felt the event went well overall, there were some difficulties.

“I would say the hardest challenge was cutting down the student team,” Levine said. “We had a lot of students wanting to play on the team and a lot of students we thought would make good players. Having to cut it down to 14 or less people was a very big challenge.”

Fellow sophomore and co-coordinator Will Gracik agreed, adding he and Levine had specific qualities in mind for the players that were not necessarily tied to athletic ability.

“We wanted to get people who were well-known on campus,” Gracik said. “We sought out people who would bring audiences to the game.”

Junior business management major Mitch Kuldell had one of the two pick-sixes for the students and said while the event itself was fun, it was the interaction with the faculty team that put the Bradley Bowl over the top.

“It was an absolute blast,” Kuldell said. “That’s what I love about Bradley, having that interaction inside and outside the classroom. I mean, the vice president of Student Affairs of all people participated, how cool was that? I wish we could have beaten them to have something to rub into their face, but it’s still great to be able to interact with them like that.”

Thomas said he agreed with Kuldell, and he said that he believed the trash talk would continue long after the game ended.

“It’s fun to get to see the students interact and to interact with them in a different way than we do in the classroom or in our offices,” Thomas said. “I’m pretty sure there was a lot of noise talk before and there will be noise talk for the rest of the week as well.”

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