Play afternoon pick-up sports here

Looking around Pitt’s uniquely urban campus on a beautiful summer day conjures a euphoric… Looking around Pitt’s uniquely urban campus on a beautiful summer day conjures a euphoric feeling rooted deep inside you. You can’t explain why, but suddenly you forget you’re here for school at all and you need to get outside.

But first, you need to find your glove. Well, your Frisbee, football, soccer ball – any piece of equipment that fosters athletic competition, feisty or friendly.

Now you need a place to play.

Uh oh. Here’s where Pitt’s uniquely urban campus could use some conformity. With all the concrete and asphalt around, where are you going to play?

Relax. Pitt and the surrounding area provide plenty enough green for you to smear on your shorts. And knowing the good spots for a bit of sports is a valuable snippet to learn.

Cathedral Lawn

If you don’t mind getting a little dirty, that is. The Western Hemisphere’s tallest educational building, um, the Cathedral, is landlocked by several recreation-ready patches of grass overwhelmed with mud.

The thing is, so many people, including club sports, have used the Cathedral’s expansive turf between it and Heinz Chapel that the grassy areas have now receded to each corner.

However, the middle field has been plagued the worst. So there’s ample room for anything on the shaded grasses behind the Cathedral down the hill nearest to Forbes Avenue and on the Cathedral’s left side.

If you’re feeling a little dirty, go ahead and slop it up in the muck. But the Cathedral lawn is still a good place for some sunny afternoon pick-up sports.

Soldiers and Sailors Lawn

So what if it’s a hill. The lawn in front of Soldiers and Sailors Hall on Fifth Avenue is as lush and fertile as the rainforest. It’s a place where you can playfully lob fly balls to each other or toss a Frisbee or football. Soccer really doesn’t work on a hill, not that you couldn’t try.

If you’re looking for some fierce competition, though, this probably isn’t your spot. Even if the sun peaks between the clouds on an overcast afternoon, flocks of girls (and guys who think they’re going to impress girls) rush to the lawn and stick to the grass like magnets.

Often times, then, it’s a little too crowded to play a serious game. However, if you’re looking for leisure and a spot to fish like they did in “American Pie 2,” Soldiers and Sailors is a good pick.

Intramural Fields

If you live on Upper Campus or are down for a little hike or a shuttle ride, head up to the Cost Center behind Sutherland and Trees Halls. Next to the baseball field and parallel to the bottom floor of the parking garage, the intramural fields are a stellar place to play anything.

When they’re not facilitating some type of organized intramural play (normally at night) the IM fields offer the best turf at Pitt, being the mix between artificial turf and natural grass that now inhabits many football fields on which the professionals play.

There are normally soccer nets set up, so you and your friends can pitch your own donnybrook of epic proportions. There are football lines, too, though the two intramural fields are abbreviated in length.

In short, you can play nearly anything on the IM fields if you go in the afternoon.

Schenley Park and Panther Hollow

Schenley Park is also great for all recreation, but to a much greater degree than the IM fields. In Schenley Park, you can do everything from golfing at Schenley Park Golf Course to running its rugged trails. Schenley Park is a great place for sports.

Flagstaff Hill

If you want a different view of the Cathedral, walk a little further up Forbes Avenue toward Carnegie Mellon to find Flagstaff Hill.

It’s steep, but expansive. And normally it’s not nearly as crowded as Soldiers and Sailors during a sunny afternoon, so there’s tons of room to do whatever you want.

And though you might think that Schenley Plaza is a perfect spot to toss the hide or the pigskin, it’s not, because you can’t. It’s not allowed.

If you’re looking for some outdoor street hoops, you might be tired before you even get there. The only outdoor basketball court is located behind Dan Marino Field at the other end of Dawson Street – just about as far away from Pitt as you can go in that direction before hitting water.

You could play organized softball or baseball at Marino field, or you could elect to walk the exponentially shorter distance past Posvar Hall and across Roberto Clemente Drive to the softball field there. It’s smaller, but hey, you can play home run derby.