Six hundred dodgeballs and 527 people were not enough to break the world record.
The Inter-Residence Hall Association hosted a dodgeball tournament on Sunday afternoon in an attempt to break the world record for the largest organized game.
Five hundred and twenty-seven people showed up to play, falling short of the required 1,745 players, a record currently held by the University of California, Irvine.
Adam Lindsley, a co-director of the event, said when they first had the idea, the record was only 450 people, but UC Irvine has since made 1,745 people the new record.
“We wanted to break the world record, but most importantly, we wanted to provide a program to the on-campus residents and the students of UF in general that they could really enjoy,” Lindsley said.
Jacob Speedy, co-director with Lindsley, said the goal was to reach 2,000 people.
The event was open to UF students, faculty and staff. The referees were UF students.
After seeing the number of people who showed up, Speedy said he was just shooting for 1,000.
Lindsley said the purpose of the event was to promote the Boys & Girls Club of Alachua County.
IRHA has tried to break a world record before, hosting the attempt for the world’s largest water balloon fight last spring.
That event was also unsuccessful.
Cody Degroff, 20, of Santa Fe College, said he had a lot of fun participating anyway.
“Even though the record wasn’t broken, I was still really glad I managed to get up and get out to do it,” Degroff said.
