Broncoball: 'Horseback hockey' without sticks

Witnessing the birth of a sport is pretty rare. So when I was invited to the debut of something called Broncoball, I was all for it. To watch, that is. Nobody said anything about taking part. I was lured in by Donnie Nelson, the James Naismith of Broncoball. It's a fitting connection seeing as Nelson has made a career out of basketball, the sport Naismith invented. Nelson has done so well as president of the Dallas Mavericks that he's become a part-owner of the Mesquite Rodeo. He loves watching the animals and riders, but his kids don't. That's what spurred him to come up with a new, hopefully dynamic game on the dirt of a rodeo arena...One observer described Broncoball as "horseback hockey." That's a good start, just minus the sticks. There are two teams, each with four riders on quarterhorses, plus a fifth guy who isn't. Riders go from offense to defense like in hockey or basketball. The ball gets tossed from rider to rider, with at least three teammates required to touch it before taking a shot. The shot actually is a throw to the fifth guy, who stands atop a barrel inside the goal, a chalk-lined circle that's off-limits to riders. Catches made atop the barrel score two points; it's only one point if he comes off the barrel to make the catch. The ball is a practice softball. It's the same size as a regular softball only much softer, so it's easy to catch barehanded and doesn't hurt if it hits anyone — or the horses. Luckily for me, there are only a few more rules: • Any ball hitting the ground is a turnover; • Riders have eight seconds to shoot or pass; • Defenders can jerk, jostle, shove and push opposing riders, but only with one hand. The biggest duty for those of us in zebra shirts is keeping a ball in play. Whenever one falls, or a goal is scored, an official flips another to the nearest player on offense. While everyone is on the other end, we collect stray balls in our area. This becomes more treacherous as the game goes on, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who has ever been around horses...more

I guess that's why they call him Jimmy "Broncoball" Bason.