Thousands travel for 39th annual “Quack-Off,” a duck racing fundraiser

Thousands of people flocked to the town of Avoca, Nebraska, for a webbed-footed event.

Every year on the last Saturday of January, thousands of people from all around Nebraska travel to Avoca for the 39th annual running of the ducks, or “Quack–Off” as locals call it.

It’s a fundraiser featuring live duck races.

“We start out as a town of about 194 people and we grow to well over 4,500 in one day. 46 buses came in today… So it brings a pretty good crowd,” said Avoca Fire Chief Martin Brammier.

The event attracts tourists from all over the state, and even some from outside of it.

“There were three ladies from Canada here today, we’ve got a gentleman that’s been here for 34 of the 39 years and he comes up from Kansas every year,” said Brammier.

For 20 dollars, people registered to race with one of the ducks that are rented out for the day from a Lincoln farmer.

Fire chief Brammier says this is an important fundraiser for Avoca’s fire department.

Proceeds go to help buy new equipment and to help fulfill training needs.

With the recent cold front, Brammier wasn’t sure if the event was going to happen this year.

“Two weeks ago we were considering calling it off this year because they were talking about sub zero temperatures this week. We got a lot of feedback on that and people said not to cancel it so we went ahead with it,” said Brammier.

The origin story behind the running of the ducks is an interesting one.

“Many, many years ago a gentleman by the name of Vern Dettmer got into an argument down here on a cold winter day at the local tavern on who had the fastest ducks,” said Brammier.

Brammier says the two men took their ducks to a local pound that was frozen over.

They raced ducks for the first time 39 years ago and the event was born.

Saturday’s championship race was intense… Everyone involved was gunning for the first place trophy and pride that comes along with it.

“It’s a great event, great people down here, we love it and it’s a lot of bragging rights to say you won quack off,” said Brammier.

Andrew Vinton and his duck, Doug, came up just short, finishing second.

It was Vinton’s first time participating in Quack-Off.

“All credit to Doug, he’s a runner, he’s a fighter, he’s a competitor, that’s all I can say about Doug. He’s an amazing duck, I love him with all my heart,” said Vinton.

Vinton says he heard about Quack-Off from friends and wanted to give it a try.

“The community does a great job of bringing people out for it… The finals was unreal… I really encourage anyone who has ever even heard of it to come out and see what it’s all about, it’s awesome,” said Vinton.