Mud Bowl Championships

Festival Location: North Conway, NH, USA

Festival State: New Hampshire Festivals

Festival Type(s): Bizarre Sports Events, Bizarre Festivals

By: © Nelson Taylor 2009

Since 1975, teams of keg-bellied weekend warrior football fanatics in the northeast have been getting together to play some serious ball, some serious mud ball that is. Whether created by rain or an army of sprinklers, teams would get together on fields of mud to prove their civic pride in a game of downright dirty touch football. These are teams with names like the Hampshire Hills Muddas, the Rhode Island Muckaneers, the Merrimack Mudcats and the Mass Mudsharks.

In the beginning, the winning championship team would not only get bragging rights, but they'd get the honor of hosting the Mud Bowl the next year. Enter the Mount Valley Washington Hogs from North Conway, who dominated the early years of the sport. In fact, they ended up hosting the championship game so often that they built Hog Coliseum, the only mud football stadium in the world.

Now, every September, the two best mud football teams duke it out for the mud football title. But don't just go to North Conway for the game. You have to experience the entire weekend, which begins with Friday night's pep rally, bonfire and drunkfest, which for many slides right into the parade the next morning. At the Mud Parade you'll witness the incredible talents of New Hampshire Lawnchair Brigade drill team.