Participants in RIT’s attempt to break the dodgeball world record hosted by Phi Kappa Psi and the Dodgeball Club, rush towards the 500 plus dodgeballs lining the center of the Gordon Field House as the game begins, May 1, 2011.
Juan Madrid

Members of the Brown team regroup during the world record game, Sunday.
Jonathan Foster

On Sunday, May 1, thousands of RIT students, faculty and staff waited in the Gordon Field House, anxious to participate in what could be a record setting game of dodgeball. The wait was made all the more agonizing by lurking fear that RIT wouldn’t be able to muster to necessary number of participants. Finally, backed by the power of social media, the occupancy of the field house grew large enough to break the University of Alberta’s World Record of 2,012 throwers. With 2,136 students, RIT accomplished their goal of breaking the record, despite doubts of RIT’s capabilities from members of the U of A dodgeball club. But RIT pulled through, reaching the 2,000 mark moments before the match began. It was the biggest dodgeball game in the history of the world, and it happened at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Before the match got underway, ceremonial speakers Dr. Mary-Beth Cooper, the senior vice president of Student Affairs, and Student Government President Greg Pollock took turns speaking at the podium. Pollock and Cooper both applauded the efforts of the RIT community to turn the world record into a reality and saw it as an opportunity to increase school spirit. But Cooper’s final words, albeit biased, were met with delight. “Brown is going down!” she shouted, prompting thunderous cheers from the orange side.

And then it began.

Members of the Orange team wait for an onslaught of dodgeballs from the Brown team.
Jonathan Foster

Screaming and shouting, 2,136 raging dodgeballers broke for the 500 foam-rubber orbs along the centerline. The melee that ensued would last less than an hour and a half, but those 90 minutes were filled with the bright blue chaos as several hundred balls whizzed through the air. The wallflowers outlasted the more brazen warriors as the field shrank in size and the volleys rose in intensity. Photographers and referees littered the floor; witnesses sat back, validating the spectacle for the Guinness Book of World Records.

At exactly 2 p.m., a truce was called. Orange had stomped the Brown team by a solid thirty players, securing Rochester Institute of Technology’s place in the record books. Some scooped the azure cushions for a piece of history, but after U of A’s record fell to RIT in less than three months, one question remains: Will history repeat itself for RIT?