UND Law School Students play a friendly game of flag football against UND Medical School students in the annual Malpractice Bowl. Photo by Caitlin Duggan.

Friday brought the perfect weather for the annual Malpractice Bowl, a flag football game between UND’s medical school and law school student, in Memorial Stadium.

“(The Malpractice Bowl) is actually a student-run event that goes back in history over 60 years ago,” said law school spokesperson Rob Carolin. “UND, is one of 45 or 50 public schools in the country that have both law and medical school, so there’s a rivalry, but there’s a connection as well. It gets competitive, but they do it as a fun way to connect. They battle it out on the field, then they get together afterward for a social event.”

The origin of the game’s name is a shroud of mystery.

“I’m not sure of the history of how they came up with that,” Carolin said. I’m not sure if it’s been called that forever or not. I know there’s some concern sometimes at the Dean’s level, about promoting malpractice, but its all tongue in cheek.” said Carolin.

But all can agree in its hilarity, “I like the name of the event;   it’s pun intended. Nice play on words,” laughed quarterback, captain, and second year medical student Betsy Dickinson.

Medical and law school faculty and staff sat in the stands alongside classmates, families and the public to cheer on the women and men during their games. The medical school women’s team won the first game with a score of 20-0. The Med School men’s team also won, without a definitive score on either side, due to some disputed plays by both teams in the end zone.

Second-year medical school student and fan John Roller  shared his opinion before the game.

“I think both the men and the women from med school are going to win,” Roller said. “The women are on a two year winning streak and carry that into (the game). The guys haven’t. They’re are going to start a new tradition. We’ve been down for awhile, but I think is the year we’re going do it.”

Although the Bowl was a friendly game, the medical school students treated it as if it were the real deal.

“We started school the second week of August, so we’ve been practicing for about four and a half weeks, four hours of practice a week,”  Brady Burckhard said. Brady Buckhard is a quarterback, captain and second year medical student.

“In the practices, offense and defense scrimmage against each other, and we basically run a lot of plays and go through the motions,” Burckhard said.

The Malpractice Bowl is more than a rivalry football game for the students.

“Sometimes you’re so busy studying, and it’s nice to get out and hangout with your classmates in a non stressful environment,” Burckhard said. “The stereotype is true, we spend a lot of time studying, but its nice to see us getting outside and having fun.”

While support from the respective schools is a guarantee, Burckhard invites all members of the community to come to these games.

“We’d love to draw a crowd,” said Burckhard. “As law school and med school students, you’re in the older group. So you’re always busy studying a lot, so you don’t get to interact with the rest of the undergraduate student body very often. So this is a great way for people who aren’t familiar with med school and law school faces to come out here and see us in our not normal environment.”

On the UND School of Law website, a side comment to the UND Malpractice Bowl states, “Law: the only game where the best players get to sit on the bench.”

Paula Kaledzi is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at paula.kaledzi@my.und.edu.