Donkey ball lives. We missed this good news from an AP story earlier this month out of Moravia, Iowa. When the donkeys came to Moravia, a town of 680, 600 people paid to see the game.
Donkey basketball was invented in the 1930s. The game is played 4 on 4 as local celebs (elected officials, school teachers, maybe even a newspaper publisher) mount imported donkeys and play a game of hoops. Sometimes the donkeys cooperate, but mostly they don't, which is where the fun begins. There are squads of donkeys roaming from one small town to another. Mostly, the donkey games are held as fundraisers. The Moravia event pulled in $2,300 to help pay for a summer trip by the high school band.
There are inevitable calls by animal rights activists to end donkey ball. The donkeys are "confused," said one PETA spokesperson. (Our memory of donkey ball is that it's the people who are the most perplexed.) "We're just a bunch of good ol' boys and farmers down here in rural Iowa, so we're not too worried about PETA," said Angela Stufflebeam, who organized the Moravia event. "I'm more worried about the guys on the donkeys."