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WHEN THE MOVIE “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” was released in 2004 it immediately became fodder for references and in-jokes for an entire generation of movie-goers and sports fans, and now one of those is coming to the real world.
Lines like “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball,” and “Nobody makes me bleed my own blood,” were destined to be shared across the hallways of freshman dorms for years to come.
But possibly the strongest, most endearing joke made in the film is the ongoing reference to “ESPN 8: The Ocho,” the fictional network charged with “Bringing You the Finest in Seldom Seen Sports’.
On Thursday, ESPN announced that for one day only, The Ocho would finally become a reality. August 8th (8/8, get it?), ESPNU will program for 24 hours showing more obscure sports you normally might only stumble across at 3am or as counter-programming on a football Sunday.
Sports to be shown next Tuesday include, disc golf, trampoline dodgeball, cornhole, kabaddi, and the Firefighters World Challenge XXV. All of the events will be a championship of some sort as well, so you can be sure you are tuning in to some high stakes obscure athletic action.
While there is no word yet on if Cotton McKnight and Pepper Brooks will be able to make appearances for a bit of guest commentary, it seems that at least for a day, ESPNU will finally live up to the mission statement “Dodgeball” jokingly promised us years ago: “If it’s almost a sport, we’ve got it here.”
