Big Ten Clubs of Beijing Host Inaugural American Football Tailgate in Beijing

Last weekend, American football came to Beijing! An organization called AFL China, which involves none other than famous footballer and ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown Legend Ron “Jaws” Jaworski, hoped to make the Arena Football League a popularly played professional sport here in China. On Sunday, November 10th, they hosted the first ever Arena Football League All Star Game at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing.

And who does football better than the Big Ten? When the Big Ten Clubs got wind of this a few weeks ago, we were armed and ready to do what we do best: TAILGATE! It is really amazing what happens when a few people have an idea and just decide to run with it. Within 2 weeks, a group that included myself (President, MSU Beijing Alumni Club), Marco Reyes (President, U Illinois Beijing Alumni Club), Sylvia Liu (Purdue Beijing), and Tom Degregoris (Notre Dame Beijing) got together with the AFL China team to sell almost 250 tickets to the game through the Big Ten Network. Then in the morning before the game, we hosted the first ever American Football Tailgate in Beijing. Over 100 people representing 20 universities came out for beer, sausages, and all the fixins of an America-style football tailgate. We believe it is the start of a great new tradition!!

See below for pics from the event, and join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bigtenchina/

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