May 6, 2004

By Meredith DePaolo
Special to CollegeSports.com

With all the roughhousing, tackling, and general fisticuffs that are college sports, there's little room for manicures, spring pastels, and champagne cocktails. Right?

Wrong!

Down South, athletes get an annual moral makeover during the Annapolis Cup. The teams are from the Naval Academy and St. John's College. The sport? Croquet.

For more than twenty years, the Midshipmen and Johnnies have met on manicured lawns with mallets in one hand, and cucumber sandwiches in the other. Croquet is a challenging and intriguing sport that requires tactical ability, sound judgment, and fast reflexes.

Croquet first caught on in 13th century France. Peasants fashioned hoops out of willow branches and used shepherd staffs to hit the balls.

Today, the Midshipmen suit up in crisp whites, and the Johnnies, well, they wear anything they like. This year they outfitted themselves in Army fatigues. Last year, they wore tuxedo T-shirts.

Taking fashion liberties seems to work well for the literati that attend St. John's. Unlike the coursework at Navy, that combines academics with physical training, the Johnnies undergo a four-year immersion in the Great Books. It's a curriculum that includes the works of Plato, Euclid and Jane Austen.

And in the cutthroat world of croquet, Navy is the underdog.

To date, St. John's has made mincemeat of the Mids. The rivalry began in 1982, and the series stands with St. John's leading, 18-4.

But the biggest attraction at the croquet competition is the garden party held just outside the lawn courts.

Spectators from the neighboring communities sipped champagne and nibbled chocolate covered strawberries. They wore pearls and carried parasols.

Fancy stuff, but this is still college. Reportedly, St. John's students picnicked on a grassy slope overlooking the croquet game. They, too, drank wine. But they poured it out of a box.