"Even the intramural teams compete for national championships. In late December, two afternoons before the tackle-football Gators claimed the national title with a Sugar Bowl thrashing of Florida State, two teams from Florida finished second and third in the flag-football nationals in New Orleans. "Our fraternity is based on flag football," says Jeff Dawson, president of the Florida chapter of Pi Lambda Phi, the third place finisher in New Orleans. "Has been for almost 50 years."
"It was 48 years ago that Pi Lambda Phi and Tau Epsilon Phi, Florida's two largest Jewish Fraternities, first staged the annual Nosebowl, so named by the participants for the generous proboscises found on some team members. Today, pledges from the two houses practice for the game 2-1/2 hours a day, six days a week. As many as 900 alumni from the frats flock to the event, which is shown on cable TV as far away as South Florida."
For those of you who weren't around in the mid to late 80s, Pilam went on a football tear. We dominated UF and National flag football for about 5 straight years. Winning both Campus and National tournaments.
In 1985, Nosebowl was on local Gainesville television. That year, the game was so popular the cable company's channel broadcast the game several times during the following week. The Monday after the game, I was at the bar of the Brown Derby, and on one screen was Nosebowl and on the other was Monday Night Football. It was pretty funny, guys at one end were listening to "Marino throwing to Duper", and on the other screen it was "Englehard to Sachs." Of course, there were more people watching NB.
--BK