FOR THE LOVE OF DONKEYS -- PART 6

 A TRIBUTE TO FRANK J. BARTHEN

Barthen staged games of donkey basketball and baseball and held celebrity donkey races.

Civic groups, high school sports boosters, fire and police departments used the donkey games for fund raising.

Barthen usually accepted a percentage of the take as payment.

Donkey riders often included high school principals, small town mayors and other local celebrities known to the people gathered to watch the donkey ball games.

Sometimes national celebrities made jackasses of themselves on the backs of Barthen’s burros.

He said several Ohio State University football players earned their bruises flying off bucking burros.

Mike Tomczak, a former Buckeye quarterback and signal caller for several NFL teams during a decade-plus pro career, road a ducking donkey, Barthen said.

TRIBUTE CONTINUES TOMORROW -- MAY 20