Drake University of Des Moines, Iowa is preparing to travel as a team to Africa in May 2011, and play the inaugural American football game ever on the continent! Led by Head Coach Chris Creighton, the Drake Bulldogs are going to play a college football game in Arusha, Tanzania, under the shadows of Mount Kilimanjaro. Their opponent will be travel to Africa from Mexico, representing the newly restructured league of private universities, CONADEIP. The majority of teams in this league are from the Tec de Monterrey (ITESM) campuses scattered across the country, whose members have captured 10 of the past 11 National Championships at the collegiate level.
Game: Drake, located in Des Moines, Iowa is an NCAA Division I-FCS non-scholarship school, just like the Ivy League schools, and has reached out to Patrick Steenberge of Global Football to produce the game. CONADEIP will start its inaugural season in fall 2010, having restructured to provide a highly competitive schedule for the long-dominant private universities in Mexico which all competed in the ONEFA league previously. A select team of players will be selected to represent the league.
Dates: Game Day will be Saturday, May 21, while the teams’ tours will run May 17-June 1. Tour highlights/dates include:
May 17- Depart USA- May 18- Arrive Kilimanjaro Airport, transfer to Moshi
- May 19-20- Practice, youth clinic, safari
- May 21- Global Kilimanjaro Bowl, Drake Bulldogs vs CONADEIP Mexico
- May 22-24- Youth orphanage service project
- May 25-30- Climb Mount Kilimanjaro
- May 31- Flight home; arrive June 1
Statement of Purpose

In the past decade I have had the chance to travel with Coach Chris Creighton as he led his teams to Austria and Panama. We are kindred spirits in travel, adventure and our beliefs that we who are so fortunate should reach out, experience, learn from other cultures, and help others as possible.
Life changed in January 2010 when Coach told me of his dream, supported by Drake athletic director, Sandy Hatfield Clubb, and asked me to find an opponent that would share this dream and travel to Africa to play. Seven months later, Student Affairs Director Enrique Ramos of Tec de Monterrey University Mexico, heartily embraced the same vision.
Now we work together, preparing to do something very special and historical, something that will impact the lives of the college student athletes from Mexico and the US who travel to Tanzania to compete, to live out an adventure, and to serve. They will in turn impact the lives of thousands of youngsters in Tanzania, now and in the future. In addition, they will bring a dynamic team sport to Africa, known as American football.
We have a stellar ‘team’ working to achieve all our goals, but need others to join us, to make the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl historical in many ways for so many people.
So I say to you the most common word in Swahili, ‘Karibu’, or Welcome.
Come join us!
Ahsante San (thank you),
Patrick Steenberge
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