The inaugural Pride Bowl is set for June 27-28 as the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association ( CMSA ) begins the groundwork to bid on hosting the 2009 Gay Bowl, the pinnacle of LGBT flag football that has traveled across America since its inception in 2002.
The Chicago Flames won Gay Bowl V in San Diego in 2005 behind MVP quarterback Will Ward, but Chicago has never hosted the tradition-rich event tha the New York Warriors won for the second consecutive season last year.
The Pride Bowl will be held at Foster Beach, 5200 N. Lake Shore, with games running throughout the day, starting at 9 a.m.
'This is kind of a dry test-run because, yes, we definitely are exploring the idea of hosting the 2009 Gay Bowl,' said Shawn Albritton, commissioner for CMSA's flag-football league, which starts its 10th season in September with a league-record 22 teams expected to participate.
CMSA has the world's largest LGBT flag-football league, and six Chicago teams will be among the 12 participating in Pride Bowl. The remaining teams will travel to Chicago from New York, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles, among other places.
Every team is guaranteed four games, starting with pool-play on Friday, and then single-elimination playoffs on Saturday.
'We want to make this an annual tournament, regardless of whether or not we're hosting the Super Bowl,' Albritton said,
Chicago's top teams for Pride Bowl are G-Spot and the Jackhammer Bears. Albritton, who plays center and linebacker, is joined on G-Spot by quarterback Mike Kenney and wide receiver/cornerback Andrew Burke. The Bears are led by quarterback Brandon Fogel and Dan Shever ( center/linebacker ) .
Mary's Attic is Chicago's dark horse to advance deep into the Pride Bowl playoffs behind the play of quarterback Brian Kupersmit.
'We're the biggest [ flag-football ] league in the country and we want to be the leaders. Plus, we want to put on a good face for [ the City of ] Chicago and we just want to have fun,' Albritton said. 'Being the largest league, we feel a responsibility to see that the flag football movement continues to grow. We want to showcase our league.'
The Pride Bowl will be a benefit for the Test Positive Aware Network ( TPAN ) and the event will pay tribute to Anthony Castro, a gay player from Los Angeles who died last year. Each year, the board of the Chicago Pride Bowl will choose a person or organization to honor. The honor would be someone who has gone above and beyond in their efforts to support tolerance, diversity and acceptance for the GLBT community.
'We want to be among the first cities to host an annual [ flag football ] tournament much like there are numerous tournaments [ almost every weekend ] across the country for softball,' Albritton said. 'Tournaments such as this are a blast above and beyond the on-field play. There's great camaraderie among the gay flag football teams, much more than in any other sport I play in.'
There are only men's teams registered, and Albritton said he 'was not sure' if any women registered for the Pride Bowl, but confirmed a transgender player from New York will be participating.
Images from the 2006 Gay Bowl in Dallas. Photos by Ross Forman