Saturday marks the first full-contact football game between residence halls at Dix Stadium.

The event, which began as an exchange of friendly trash-talk between two resident assistants, quickly evolved into an official football game between Dunbar and Prentice, according to Patrick Kennedy, a resident assistant and team captain for Prentice.

“This is the biggest event that Residence Services has ever thrown — at least that we know of,” Kennedy said. “We want to get the whole campus involved as much as possible.”

Neil Ormerod, resident assistant and team captain for Dunbar, challenged Kennedy to a football game, pitting the respective residence halls’ inhabitants against each other.

“The next thing you know, I’m on the phone booking the event at Dix Stadium,” Kennedy said. “I just had to call around, and I was put in touch with (the) Field House office, which organized the whole thing for me.

“Once I got the ‘yes’ there, everything got hyped-up and started exploding,” Kennedy said.

The teams, consisting of approximately 35 players each, will face off at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Residence Services will host a pregame tailgate and halftime powderpuff football game.

“Once Patrick got access to the stadium, we decided that, well, we have the stadium — we might as well make this thing huge,” Ormerod said.

POWERcorps, a community service organization that works with Dunbar and Prentice, is attending the game.

POWERcorps provides recreation, social and leisure opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities, according to the organization’s website.

Guests from the community service organization are invited to interact with the participants and partake in the activities offered at the event.

“What’s better than hitting each other in a full-blown, tackle football game while building community and getting awareness out there for POWERcorps?” Ormerod said.

Building community is an important goal of the event, according to both team captains.

“It’s so rare to know and be friends with kids outside of your building,” Kennedy said. “Even that has begun building connections, and it’s great to see everyone coming together.”

Ormerod agreed the game is a good way to meet people.

“We want to be able to go out there and light each other up,” Ormerod said. “But at the end of the game, we want to be able to look at the other guy and say, ‘I leveled you and it was great and I loved it, but you’re a cool dude.’”

Austin Wilson, freshman architecture major and Dunbar team member, said he’s most excited about the opportunity to play a “real” football game at Dix Stadium.

“It’s going to be the biggest backyard football game I’ve ever played,” Wilson said. “We’ve got actual teams, actual offenses, actual defenses — it’s really exciting. I can’t wait for it, honestly.”

Kennedy said there is no prize for the victor of the game, but he is not too concerned.

“The winner gets bragging rights,” Kennedy said. “That’s bigger than any trophy for us.”

The event gathered funds from the Prentice and Dunbar hall councils, as well as the Kent Interhall Council, Kennedy said. Flashnotes.com is also sponsoring the event, and Kennedy said the teams are still in talks with more possible sponsors, including Hungry Howie’s Pizza.

Kennedy and Ormerod said they encourage participation from others on campus. Anyone can take part in the game by contacting the team captains through the event’s Facebook page.

“This event is so hyped between our two buildings,” Kennedy said. “You have to see it to understand it. The atmosphere of this game is going to be like any other college football game, if not better.”

Contact Rex Santus at [email protected].