Oddball: The 1936 Koehler-Escoffier Moto-Ball Special

One of the weirdest sports the world has ever seen is Moto-Ball: It’s like polo, but with motorcycles instead of horses. It was popular in France in the 1930s, and made a brief and bizarre return in 1986 for Ted Turner’s ‘Goodwill Games.’ (Remember them?) A Moto-Ball field is the same size as a soccer pitch, but the ball is bigger than a regular soccer ball. The goalkeeper is the only person not riding a bike—and probably has a high chance of suffering a truly horrific injury. Moto-Ball is a minority sport these days, but 80 years ago it prompted...