14 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FEATURES
THURSDAY,SEPTEMBER 5,2002
Bocceball hits KU
By Mandalee Meisner Jayplay writer
Mention bocce ball to the average sports fan, and you may not ring a bell.
But to a growing number of Americans and KU students, bocce (it rhymes with plotchy) is becoming the perfect complement to a warm summer day, a few cool drinks and some spare time.
Aaron Showalter/KANSAN
As the sun set Tuesday, sending shadows over the Delta Chi fraternity house, a group of members stood in a line and took turns lobbing eight three-poundballs in an arc across the front lawn. Each tried to get as close as possible to a small, white, target ball cast 10 feet away.
One of the players, Kevin Parks, Bonner Springs junior, was exposed to the sport while studying abroad in Florence, Italy, last semester.
Shouts of "throw the ball farther," "get some spin," and "oh, that's money" came from the porch, where spectators gathered.
"In Italy, old men sit around and smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and play bocce," he said.
Now, Kevin is just one of the Delta Chi brethren who have taken up this ancient game, adding a typical collegiate slant along the way.
"It's kind of like horseshoes," Justin Rhorer, Yankton. S.D., junior, said. "We usually drink some beers when we play."
Although bocce is considered an Italian pastime, its origins span many countries and seven millennia.
It all started in Egypt.
Archeologists discovered a drawing that supposedly depicts a person throwing rocks at a target, and a tomb of a young child from that period contains rounded, bocce-sized stones.
Eventually, the precursor of bocce spread from Egypt to Greece, and then Italy. Roman soldiers took their bocce balls, made of either coconut or polished olive-wood, wherever they battled.
There, a game similar to bocce dates back to 5200 B.C.
After producing a mania in Medieval Europe, bocce remained popular in France (they call it boules) and Elizabethan England. A story goes that when a messenger interrupted Sir Francis Drake during a particular intense game of "lawn bowling," he shouted back, "First we finish the game, then we'll deal with the Armada."
In the late 1800s and early 20th century,
Nick Holliday, Olathe Freshman, plays bocce ball on the lawn of the Delta Chi house.
Italian immigrants brought bocce with them to American shores.
Bocce seems to be seeping at a slow steady pace into mainstream culture. More than 25 million Americans have played the game, and two million play it regularly, says www.worldbocce.org.
Worldwide, it's sandwiched between soccer and golf in terms of popularity.
Vito Ungaro, Chicago junior, played the game on the beach with his relatives in Bari, Italy, two summers ago.
"It's like sand volleyball there, just something to pass the time and get sun without doing strenuous activities," he said.
This summer, Ungaro bought a bag of bocce balls at a sporting goods store in Kansas City and introduced bocce to the Delta Chi's.
"We had playoffs with the 16 guys who lived in the house," Ungaro said. "We pretty much played all afternoon, until we couldn't see."
Matt Gertken, Hutchinson sophomore, started playing the game in high school after his dad brought home a bag of bocce balls.
With some friends, Gertken incorporated bocce into a weekend ritual.
"We mixed Cape-codders and put on an Ultralounge record," he said. "Then we'd mow about a 30-foot patch on my lawn and proceed to engage in the game.
"The beauty of bocce is the fact that you can hold an alcoholic beverage while playing," he said.
HOROSCOPES
Contact Meisner at meisner@kansan.com
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