After classes one day last week, a squad of students took to a makeshift football field behind the library at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg.

Their sneakers squished and squeaked in the mud as they practiced running plays in the grass. Flags tied at their waists flapped in the wind.

Behind them, formidable monuments dotted the ridge of Reynolds Avenue where brigades of infantrymen advanced on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

On Saturday, the storied terrain will host a different kind of skirmish: Luther Bowl XLIV -- an all-day, ecumenical flag-football tournament that draws seminary teams from as far as Chicago and South Carolina.

The seminarians come for the football and stay for the fellowship

The team from Gettysburg's seminary prays in a huddle during Luther Bowl 2008. (SUBMITTED)
-- a post-game Eucharist followed by a celebratory dinner.

"This is one of the few things here that has the ability to draw a crowd," said tournament organizer Dave Bowman, 23.

Bowman, a second-year student, also manages Gettysburg's team, the Fighting Schmuckers (named for seminary founder Samuel Simon Schmucker), whose most anticipated opponent is Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

The Luther Bowl originated in a fall football contest between the classes at Gettysburg in the 1960s when the student body was nearly all male, said the Rev. Dr. Bill Avery, a professor at Gettysburg who played on the school's team at the time.

"You have all these 22- to 25-year-old men with all that competitiveness and athleticism," having just left behind sports and school spirit of their undergraduate years, Avery said. "It was just clean recreational fun."

By the 1970s, the matchup with Philly became a regular contest. About 10 or 12 years ago, the schools invited other seminaries in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and then non-Lutheran schools, expanding the tournament each year. Gettysburg hosts the contest because of its central location and roomy field.

Teams arriving for the games this weekend hail from Episcopal, Presbyterian and four Lutheran schools, as well as a handful of Baptist seminarians on the Presbyterian roster of Union Theological Seminary (the institutions sit across the street from one another in Richmond, Va.).

Luther Bowl teams, like the schools, are now co-ed. Players range in age from near 20 to post-50, reflecting the prevalence of second-career seminarians in the classroom and pulpit. Seminary staff and the spouses of students may also play. While faculty once served as referees, they no longer carry those duties.

"I wouldn't trust the faculty members here to know the rules of football," said Bowman, chuckling.

He hires refs in town who regularly officiate local middle-school football games. A small

Steven Shumway, left, runs the ball with Dennis Dillman, at center, and Mike Parsh blocking during flag-football practice last week on a field at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. (YDR - KATE PENN)
fee from each team covers that cost and other expenses.

Out-of-town seminarians bring cheering sections who tailgate and buy up the ever-popular Luther Bowl T-shirts, which help fund the event. This year, those who don't make the trip can follow regular updates on Twitter, searching for the hashtag #LBXLIV.

The players compete for the coveted Luther Bowl trophy -- a prize that only a group of book-loving seminarians would appreciate. The trophy is a hardback copy of the revered Book of Concord, which contains the Lutheran confessions. The winning players ink their names inside the cover and stash the volume for safekeeping until the following November.

Last year, the Book of Concord went to the Kneelers of Trinity Episcopal School

Seminarian Dave Bowman, 23, has a tattoo on his calf of the Luther rose, a seal designed for Martin Luther and symbolic of Lutheranism. Bowman, a second-year student from Hollidaysburg, Blair County, has the task of organizing teams from eight seminaries who will compete in Saturdays Luther Bowl tournament. (YDR - KATE PENN)
for Ministry outside Pittsburgh (whose team name is a play on their hometown Steelers, which took its own bowl title last season).

Kneelers captain Justin Hogg, 30, of Grand Rapids, Mich., said he was recruited in his first weeks of school. Several players said they heard about the Bowl before even starting seminary: Students talk it up to prospective seminarians when they tour campus.

"The admissions director jokingly asked what position I played," said Rick Reiten, 26, a senior at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C.

"I was coming to seminary regardless of whether there was football, but it brought another dimension of community."

Brahm Semmler Smith, 28, who plays for the Lutheran School of

Steven Shumway, at right, listens in the huddle as Dennis Dillman tells the receivers their routes during practice at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. (YDR - KATE PENN)
Theology at Chicago, likes that the Luther Bowl encourages exercise and healthy living among seminarians -- something that's lacking among many obese and chronically ill clergy in the field.

"The (wider church) recognizes that as being a real problem," Semmler Smith said.

The Luther Bowl has had its share of injuries -- from smashed noses, to concussions to separated shoulders. Rule changes last year called for less contact on the field, aiming to lower the injury count.

Bowman reported success: "We only sent one person to the hospital." (The player had a hyper-extended knee and a torn anterior cruciate ligament.)

Meanwhile, the campus in Gettysburg is buzzing this week, preparing for guests, awaiting good times and hoping for glory, students said.

"It's not something well-known outside the community, but as big as it's getting, many future leaders in the church will have been here to play," said Jason Felici, 23, a second-year student.

"Something would be missing if it were not part of seminary life."

History

The Luther Bowl origins date to the 1960s. Students from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia organized an annual football game.

The competition evolved over the years, but the game remained limited to students at Gettysburg and Philadelphia.

In the last decade or so, organizers opened the Luther Bowl to new participants, including non-Lutheran seminaries and teams from as far away as Chicago and South Carolina.

This Saturday's event, Luther Bowl XLIV, features eight teams playing games over the course of the day on a field near the school refectory off Seminary Ridge.

The winner takes home the coveted Book of Concord, the traditional Luther Bowl trophy. Inside the cover, previous winning teams have left their mark.

Schedule

-- 8:15 a.m. Saturday: Blessing of the field

-- 8:30 a.m. through 4 p.m.: Tournament games

-- 4 p.m.: Luther Bowl XLIV Championship Game

-- 5:30 p.m.: Eucharist

-- 6:30 p.m.: Community meal

-- 7:30 p.m.: Fellowship (BYOB)

Luther Bowl XLIV, www.lutherbowl.org

Twitter
Follow updates on the Luther Bowl on Twitter with the hashtag #LBXLIV.

Teams
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg's Fighting Schmuckers

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia's Heretics

Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary's Fighting Dove (Columbia, S.C.)

Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry's Kneelers (Ambridge, Beaver County, Pa.)

Trinity Lutheran Seminary's Triadikoi (Columbus, Ohio)

Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education (Richmond, Va.)

Virginia Theological Seminary's Fighting Friars (Alexandria, Va.)