🚀 go-pugleaf

	The University of Georgia's Flying Rat Toli Team, in conjunction 
with the UGA Native American Cultural Society (NACS), will be hosting a 
series of Choctaw stickball (Toli) games on July 27th and July 28th, to
coincide with the Olympics, as part of the NACS Native Inclusion Project.
	Games will be played at 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM Saturday and
10:00 AM Sunday on Field #7 of the Intramural Fields at the corner of
College Station Rd. and East Campus Rd. in Athens, Georgia.
	A team representing the Conehatta Community and the Bogue 
Chito Community (both of the Mississippi Choctaw) will compete in 
the games.
	Each game will consist of 15 minute quarters with short (approx.
5 minutes) breaks between quarters.
	For more information about this event, contact 
Gene Crawford <crawford@bscr.uga.edu>. For more info about Toli
and the UGA Team, read on!
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	Toli is a traditional Native American game that has been 
played  for at least 400 years.  It has also been called the "little 
brother  of war", as it has, at one time, been used to settle disputes 
between tribes.  These games often involved hundreds of people 
per team, were played on fields that were several miles long, 
and lasted from sunrise to sunset.
	Modern games are a little less epic.  The official tournament 
amongst the Mississippi Choctaw is held in July and uses teams 
of 30-40, has four 15 minute quarters, and is played on a 100 yard 
field.   Each Choctaw community on the reservation sends a team 
to compete and several thousand spectators attend the games.
	While the tournament is the primary goal of Choctaw Toli 
teams,  most play throughout the year as well.  One of these 
communities, Conehatta (which means "grey skunk"), has often 
won the tournament and, in addition to practicing against other 
Choctaw teams, plays us several times during the year.  We are 
the University of Georgia Flying Rat Toli Team, the reigning 
national collegiate Toli champions.  Thus far we are undefeated in 
collegiate competition.  Unfortunately this is primarily due to  the
fact that we are the only college team.  In fact, we are the only 
non-Indian team in general, though teams are being started at 
Georgia Tech and Kennesaw State College.  We have played 
Conehatta numerous times during the seven years the team 
has existed and only thrice have we defeated them.  Despite 
our record of defeats, the Choctaw games are always eagerly 
anticipated by both teams.  These games give us a chance to 
gauge our progress as a team and to learn from a great group 
of Toli players, while the Choctaw get the novel experience of 
playing against the only non-Choctaw Toli team.
	So that's the history of Toli.  But how is it played?  Toli is 
a very fast moving game with very few rules.  The action is 
continuos, there are no time outs, fouls, first downs, out of 
bounds, or free throws.   We have no penalty box, no first base 
coaches, no off sides, and no  walks.  There are two written 
rules: 1.  You can not  touch the ball (a rock, wrapped in cloth 
then laced with leather cord) with your hands, and; 2.  You can 
only tackle the person who has possession of the ball.  This 
second rule is a bit fast-and-loose since "body checks" are 
legal and the distinction between a body check and a tackle 
is pretty subtle.  In addition to these two official rules, the Flying 
Rats have adopted two more rules to keep the game a bit more 
user friendly: 1. No "slide tackles", and ; 2. No hitting people with 
your sticks (sticks get broken this way).  The point of the game is 
to bring the ball (called the towa) into contact with your team's 
goal (a 13' high, approximately 9" diameter pole)  There are two 
ways of doing this in Toli.  The first (and safest) is to throwing it 
using  your sticks (called kapucha) of which you have two, each 
one being 2'-3' long with leather "baskets"  2"-3" wide at one end).
The second is by touching the goal with your sticks while holding 
the ball in them.  This latter method tends to result in  great bodily 
harm since the defense will stop at nothing to keep you away 
from the goal when you have the ball.  After each point and at the 
beginning of each quarter the ball is brought to the center of the 
field and tossed up in the midst of a circle of players (in a manner 
analogous to a "tip off" in basketball).
	Summer Quarter Practices are at 4:00 PM every Sunday 
on Field #8 of the Intramural Fields.  Everyone is welcome to play 
and all necessary equipment required (i.e. the sticks) is provided 
free of charge.  For more information please contact 
Gene Crawford: E-mail <crawford@bscr.uga.edu> 
or by phone 706-542-2682.