Euchre tourney adds to Fiji's greek club dominance

For Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, the 2008 Spring Euchre Tournament was a step toward putting yet another notch in its belt of greek intramural supremacy.\nRecreational Sports hosted the tournament, which drew close to 100 players, Thursday at the Indiana Memorial Union.\nBrian Arnold, a graduate assistant for RecSports, explained the difference between this event and the traditional intramurals played on campus. “We try to do something for everyone,” Arnold said. “Euchre is a good Midwest game popular in Indiana. We try to appeal to different groups who don’t participate in basketball or football.” \nIn the tournament, students paired up and rotated around the food court of the IMU, struggling through dozens of hands in order to accumulate enough points to win the tournament. During down time, participants played side games for prizes.\nWinning the tournament would award the victor a famous “Intramural Legend” shirt, something that can be seen sprinkled throughout campus on any given day. \nAt the end of the tournament, the legends emerged. Daniel Deno and Carleton Smith, both juniors and members of Phi Gamma Delta, outlasted the crowd and gathered the most points, notching yet another intramural victory for their fraternity. \nDeno couldn’t stress enough how important intramurals are for fraternities. \n“Everyone in the house is involved in an intramural and we have unmatched support,” Deno said. “It is attributed to everyone getting excited and enthusiastic about every single sport.” \nFrom basketball and flag football to dodgeball and capture the flag, the Fiji house stresses the importance of activity and sport. \n“RecSports makes it fun, and they are very accommodating,” Smith said. \nPhi Gamma Delta encourages involvement in RecSports from day one and Deno added that “organization is key.”\n“Intramurals build rivals,” he said. “It is very competitive but controlled, and it builds the greek community. We pride ourselves on being good at everything. We take every intramural seriously.”\nThe Euchre win helps the Fiji house’s effort to reclaim its title as Greek Intramural Champions, a label presented to the fraternity last year.