Popularity of UNE’s broomball league featured in the ‘Journal Tribune’
On February 1, 2015, the Journal Tribune featured a front page article on the scheduled game between two of the 51Æ·²èintramural broomball league’s teams as part of the City of Biddeford’s first Winterfest celebration, held on Saturday, February 7. The article delved into the history of broomball, a sport with strong Maine and 51Æ·²è connections.
Similar to hockey but played in sneakers instead of skates and with a ball and triangular shaped stick instead of a puck and an L-shaped stick, broomball originated in Canada in the early 1990s.
Biddeford Mayor Alan Casavant, a former broomball player, who was interviewed for the article, noted that the sport has a decades-long history of popularity in Biddeford, getting its start in the city on the 51Æ·²èCampus.
While broomball eventually gave way to hockey, 51Æ·²èhelped to resurrect the sport in Biddeford, first offering intramural broomball in 2010. According to Patricia Williams, UNE’s coordinator of intramural and recreational sports, who was also interviewed for the article, the University started out with four teams. She noted, "… as the word spread our numbers have grown each year since." 51Æ·²ècurrently has 14 broomball teams with more than 130 players.
In 2012, 51Æ·²èbroomball moved from the outdoors to the University’s Harold Alfond Forum ice arena.