By AJ Werner | Reporter
In ancient Greece, athletes competed in events for a chance at glory, fame and prestige. In 2024 at Baylor University, Greek life competes in intramural sports with the same goals.
Every year fraternities and sororities put together teams to compete in the sports Baylor has to offer through intramurals. For each win, the fraternity or sorority is awarded a certain number of points and the chapter with the most points at the end of the year wins the intramural title.
This gives each intramural sport more meaning. From ping pong to football, each team will likely face members of Greek Life.
Intramurals are meant to be a place to have fun in a sport with some friendly competition. But make no mistake, while chapters enter to have fun, they also ultimately want to win.
Alpha Tau Omega Intramural Chair Ryan Tompkins, a senior from Coppell, says the chapter aims to balance fun and competitiveness throughout every sport they participate in.
“For a major sport, we probably have eight teams — four of those teams were made with the intent of ‘Hey I just want to play with my house’ or ‘I just want to play with these guys,’” Tompkins said. “Then we have four teams made with a little more strategy. These are all pretty competitive guys, they bring a more competitive attitude.”
The chapters need to do their due diligence when putting together a roster. Often, tryouts are held to put forth the best team possible. Tompkins explained how those decisions are made.
“For those major sports we will most likely have a tryout,” Tompkins said. “I’m a 21-year-old college student putting together teams, but those tryouts help at least a little bit.”
Sometimes two teams from the same chapter are matched up against one another. Similarly to a Big 12 rivalry, there’s something special on the line whenever a fraternity or sorority gets matched up.
Chi Omega president Tallulah Rushton, a senior from Dallas, says that members often look forward to matchups against other sororities.
“It’s honestly really fun for our members to play girls and other sororities,” Rushton said. “A lot of our members either have friends or live with girls in other chapters, so it ends up being really fun when they get to play against their friends.”
Last year, Alpha Tau Omega won the intramural season. According to Tompkins, the key was participation in minor sports.
“Last year we got lucky and won, that was our fourth time winning ever,” Tompkins said. “It was a big deal for us. Our fraternity has done a really good job rallying around these sports some people might not want to play. We had the most amount of people sign up for our minor sports which was a big deal. There’s definitely high expectations.”
Chi Omega and Alpha Tau Omega both won in the competitive Flag Football Championship. Rushton says the sorority has already started strong and is looking to defend its football title.
“Morale is pretty high after last year’s win and starting off this year with the win in dodgeball,” Rushton said. “We’re planning on being just as competitive, if not more.”
Baylor Intramural registration for ultimate frisbee is currently open and closes Tuesday, Sept. 24, while flag football registration begins Monday, Sept. 23.
