This year, celebrating their 20th year of playing, the UGA Na Hollos Flying Rats Toli Team will host the Mississippi Choctaw Conehatta Skunks on April, 19th on UGA’s Intramural field number #1. Elder Hugh King will speak before and after the tournament. Program for the public starts at 2:00 p.m. Around 3:00pm comes “the real game.” Admission is free, and the game lasts until 5:00 p.m.

This match won’t be the only Toli game between the teams this year. Members of the Conehatta Community play the Flying Rats the first weekend of each October, at the Alabama Archaeological State Park in Moundville, AL. Other Toli action includes the Annual Choctaw Fair, held the second week in July, where teams from all over the reservation meet for the World Series of Stickball in Choctaw, MS. The Conehatta Skunks have won 21 of the past 58 World Series. Having them here, in Athens, is a treat and an honor. Don’t miss it.
 
 

Jamie Bishop, forever a Flying Rat, was lost today in the Virginia Tech shooting incident.

He will be sorely missed.
 
 

ATHENS, GA - The Conehatta Skunks, arguably the finest stickball team in the world, will be coming to Athens to play an exhibition match against the combined power of the UGA Flying Rats and the ASU Ivory Bills. The game will take place at 3pm Saturday April 22nd. Everyone is invited to come out and watch the action packed match!

For more information about the match email: toli AT uga.edu
 
 

ATHENS, GA – The Appalachian State University Toli team, who are trying to achieve Intramural status at ASU, is traveling to Athens to play the UGA Flying Rats at Sandy Creek Park on Saturday, November 20th at 2pm. This is the first ever intercollegiate Toli game. The Flying Rats thank Eric Boone, the ASU captain, for making this game possible.  

For more information about Appalachian State University. . 
 
 

MOUNDVILLE, AL – The UGA Flying Rats Toli team will be playing a Choctaw toli team at the Moundville annual Native Amercan Festival in Moundville, Alabama. The festival runs from October 6-9 and the toli game will be on the Saturday, the 9th. . 

For more information about the Moundville Native American Festival . 
 
 

ATLANTA, GA – The festival is called Celebrate Newtown! It is on Sunday, September 26th from 11-5 at Newtown Park in North Fulton County at the intersection of Haynes Bridge Road and Old Alabama. The team will start our part at around 1pm. There will be a short history lesson to let fastival goers see the equipment and understand the game.

The festival is trying to show the past, present and future of the park. Lacrosse is enormously popular there and has been sanctioned as a high school sport. The roots of the game are what the festival coordinators hope to show. There was a Cherokee presence there, not huge, but enough to have influenced decisions about the land and even though the Flying Rats play a Choctaw form of stick ball, we hope the audience will enjoy seeing us play. After the toli demo, a lacrosse game will be played with local high schoolers. 
 
 

ATHENS, GA – The local Scout district (Clarke, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Madison, Morgan, Greene, Elbert, Franklin and Hart Counties) is holding a camporee at Sandy Creek Park, north of Athens off 441, in the main field area in the center of the park.The theme for the weekend is games, and the Scouts will have a variety of different activities throughout the weekend. At 3:30 on Saturday the toli team will do a participatory demo, for an hour or so. The team has participated in past years and the Scouts really enjoy playing. 

You can see more information about the camporee . 
 
 

UGA to host unique Choctaw stickball exhibition 

ATHENS, GA – The Flying Rats Toli team, an intramural club sport affiliated with the University of Georgia, will host an exhibition of Choctaw-style stickball (toli) on March 20, 2004. Events will begin at 1:00 p.m. on the Intramural Sports Complex – College Station Road, Field #1 (Rugby), and are free and open to the public. In case of rain and field closure, the exhibition will take place at Sandy Creek Park.

Pre-game activities will include an explanation of the history and culture of toli, an opportunity for attendees to learn skills of the game, and other Native American-themed exhibits. 

At approximately two o’clock, the Flying Rats will take on the twenty-time world champion Conehatta Skunks, members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. It is a great honor for the Flying Rats to host these incredible competitors, considering the Flying Rats are currently the only non-Indian stickball team in existence.

Toli, the “little brother of war,” is America’s oldest sport, and has been played throughout the Southeast for well over 400 years. Similar in origin to the Iroquois’ lacrosse, the Choctaw game is instead played with two web-cupped sticks per player; the towa, or ball, is roughly the size of a golfball and traditionally consists of a leather-wrapped rock. Goals are scored by hitting a post or tree.

Toli was originally used to train warriors and to settle disputes between tribes, and the modern game (though much tamer) remains quite physical in nature and is thrilling to watch. The rules of the game are few and loose, action is continuous, and tackling is encouraged.

Although Conehatta has separate, large teams for men, women, and youth, the Flying Rats are a coed group and welcome new members year-round. 

The name of the UGA team is derived from a legend about a toli competition between members of the animal kingdom - birds vs. mammals. Because of his smaller size and strange appearance, having neither four legs nor feathers, initially neither team wanted the flying rat (bat). However, the flying rat was eventually classed with the mammals and ended up saving them from defeat. 

**

Attendees of the March 20th Invitational are welcome to bring blankets and lawn chairs. Refreshments will be available for sale. Donations to help defray the costs of the visiting team are welcomed.