Drake’s football team prepares to travel to Tanzania to participate in the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl later this month.

Several Drake football players are huddled at the far end of a Bell Center racquetball court, their attention on Kevin Miyazaki, a freelance photographer who is on campus for an ESPN The Magazine photo shoot. The pictures will run alongside an article about the team’s May 17 trip to Africa for the upcoming Global Kilimanjaro Bowl.

Drake Head Football Coach Chris Creighton has received a 2011 Giant Step Award from the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS) for his leadership in organizing the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl, which will take place May 21 in Arusha, Tanzania. The Kili Bowl will pit the Drake Bulldogs against a Mexican all-star team in the [...]

Closely cropped, this could be a halftime scenario: Ten football players in uniform huddle up — smashed paper cups and towels strewn about the floor. They lean forward, listening for directions on how to better position themselves. The athletes are intensely focused; a whiteboard in the room is scribbled with plays. The players are huddled [...]

This summer, Drake’s football team will travel to Africa to take part in the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl, participating in the continent’s first-ever game of collegiate American-style football.