The public-address announcer sprinkled in running commentary encouraging or poking fun at the players. The spills and futile attempts at coaxing uncooperative donkeys prompted laughter and finger-pointing from spectators, who paid $8 at the door. The donkeys, of course, are reluctant to budge. Players are allowed to dismount and pull a donkey by its lead. Sometimes, the donkey just decides to lie down. A player isn’t allowed to shoot unless he or she is seated on a donkey.Ī donkey might buck, or it might duck, causing its rider to slide off. Players wearing helmets but no other padding attempt to maneuver their donkeys up and down the floor during two eight-minute halves. Everyone has a good time,” said Kenny Schappacher of Ohio-based Buckeye Donkey Ball, which put on the show here.ĭonkey basketball is played 4-on-4, usually with local celebrities, school faculty or members of student organizations making up teams. When you come to a town like this, it’s just really good. Some of these towns, there just ain’t nothing to do. The town’s population is 680, and there were 600 in the gym.

Pressured by organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, some school districts have canceled individual donkey basketball events and others have banned the spectacles altogether.ĭonkey ball proved to be a popular draw in Moravia. They contend the donkeys are mistreated by participants and handlers. The game morphed through the years into a popular fundraising vehicle for schools and other organizations.īut animal rights groups are crying foul. Invented in the 1930s, the “sport” where humans mount the beasts of burden and shoot hoops was seen as affordable Depression-era entertainment.

Before long, the stars amble in from a side door - on all fours.ĭonkey basketball is alive and well in rural America. Moravia, Iowa ? It’s a Monday night in this small south-central Iowa farm town, and the high school gym is full. But animal rights groups contend the donkeys are mistreated by participants and handlers. The “sport” morphed through the years into a popular fundraising vehicle for schools and other organizations. Invented in the 1930s, donkey basketball was seen as affordable Depression-era entertainment. A player prepares to shoot the ball as he guides his mount toward the basket during a donkey basketball event in Moravia, Iowa, in this March 30 photo.

Tell time donkey balls