A six-by-six-inch, 16-ounce bag of corn kernels flies through the air, trying to reach a raised board with a hole in the far end. Getting it in the hole gets you three points while directly landing the bag on the board gets you one point.
It happens on a Nebraska football Saturday, Labor Day weekend, Fourth of July weekend, barbecue with friends and family, camp out on the lake.
What do all of these have in common? Cornhole.
What is a sport?
Dictionary.com defines sport as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess.” It goes on to specifically mention “racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, hunting and fishing” as sports.
Oxford Dictionary defines sport as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” By the latter definition, for example, hunting does not qualify as a sport because it does not involve competition. But hunters bill themselves as “sportsmen.”
By these two definitions, there are competing ideas as to what a sport is and what activities are defined as a sport.
Sport is generally recognized as a system of activities that are based in physical athleticism or physical ability. Most people think of football, basketball, baseball or volleyball when they hear the word sport.
“A sport is anything that exerts or requires physical movement or ability of any sort, whether it’s moving your thumbs for a video game or moving your entire body,” said Walter Fitzsimmons, a freshman advertising and public relations major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
A sport is usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition and allow consistent adjudication of the winner.
Sport also includes all forms of competitive physical activities or games which, through casual or organized participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants, and in some cases, entertainment for spectators.
“A sport is anything that you compete in. It takes some sort of physical activity to throw a bag into the hole. It takes a certain level of skill that is required to be a sport,” Case said.
Is Cornhole a Sport?
Someone knowledgeable about the game of cornhole might not see it as a sport because of the lack of physical exertion.
“People like to watch it, and people like to play it, so I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be,” Case said.
“I consider it a sport because once again, it’s a competitive game, and it requires tossing,” Fitzsimmons said.
“I would consider it a sport. It takes some sort of physical action and people competing against each other,” said Mark Perez, a junior music education major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
According to most people, they consider cornhole a sport due to its competitive nature. So, is, and should cornhole be considered a sport? That’s ultimately for you to decide.
So, what is Cornhole?
The lawn game is most notably known as cornhole in the Midwest, but it is also known regionally as bags, sack toss or bean bag.
According to the ACL official rules and regulations, cornhole can be played as singles, doubles or four players to a team. In doubles play, four players split into two groups. One member from each team pitches from one board and the other members pitch from the other. The first side of players alternate pitching bags until both players have thrown all four of their bags. Then the players pitching from the opposing cornhole board continue to alternate in the same manner until all four of their bags are delivered and the inning or frame is complete.
In singles play, two players play against each other. Delivery is handled in the same manner as doubles play. Both contestants pitch from the same cornhole board and alternate their pitches until all of their bags have been thrown, completing the inning or frame.
In the standard version of cancellation scoring, the total score for each team for the inning is totaled each round, and then the difference of the two scores is awarded to the team with the higher score. It is only possible for one side to score points each inning.
For example, if one team lands two bags in the hole and one on the board for seven points, and the other side lands one bag in the hole and two on the board for five points, five points from the round would cancel out, and the first team would thus score two points. Because only one team can score points in each frame, both sides can’t reach or exceed 21 points in the same inning, and therefore ties are impossible.
A cornhole match is played until the first player or team reaches 21 points after an inning. The winning team does not need to win by two or more points.
History.
The history of cornhole is a bit of a mystery.
There is no one real source of where cornhole originated. There are, however, several tales of how it got started.
Some say Germans were the original creators of not just cornhole but the whole idea of bag toss games. The story of Matthias Kuepermann served as their main proof. One day, during the 14th Century, Matthias was walking through the field and saw several kids tossing rocks at a hole. He was very concerned about kid’s safety, so he gave them bags filled with 1 pound of corn instead of rocks. The size of the hole was exactly 6 inches in diameter. Later in Germany, the corn price was so high that the popularity of this game has decreased, and eventually, the game was abandoned. As the story goes, during the 1800s, Germans who immigrated to Cincinnati started playing cornhole again. They claim that it was later “rediscovered” in Kentucky.
Another version is that cornhole was first played long before the 14th Century. In this version, cornhole was ‘invented’ by an ancient civilization. Although there is no sign of corn in this version, these people were throwing rocks in a hole in the ground — very similar gameplay to cornhole.
Ironically, in this third version, there is also no sign of corns. According to this story, cornhole was invented by Native Americans, more specifically by the Blackhawk tribe located in Illinois. Instead of corn bags, they were throwing pig’s bladder filled with dried beans.
The fourth version of cornhole history is that the true inventor of cornhole is a 19th Century Midwestern farmer from Kentucky named Jebediah McGillicuddy. He came up with an idea of a fun game to pass the time with family and friends. You guessed right; the game was about tossing a bag filled with corn into a hole.
With too many irrelevant stories, it seems like anyone who threw something in a hole was claimed to be the inventor of cornhole. Although there are many variations of bag toss games, we must realize that the first real cornhole inventors are people who started playing with similar rules by which we are now playing. So it was not some tribe or ancient rock-throwing civilization, but people who lived over the past 100-200 years and who threw bags filled with corn at a wooden board with a hole in it.
Is Cornhole Sanctioned?
The American Cornhole League (ACL) was founded in 2015 by Stacey Moore. According to ACL’s website, they promote and develop cornhole as a sport on every level. The ACL has created software and apps to manage cornhole leagues, tournaments, special events and player development.
The American Cornhole Organization (ACO), established in 2005 and headquartered in Milford, Ohio, is the “governing body for the sport of cornhole.”
The American Cornhole Association (ACA) is an organization whose sole mission is to help cornhole players enjoy the game of cornhole. According to its website, “one of the most important ways to achieve this goal is for people to have high-quality equipment to play on.” It appears that the ACA is more focused on selling cornhole-related products and equipment than it is on being a sanctioning body of the sport; however, it does have its own rules and does sponsor events.
There are other ways you can play in tournaments besides through officially sanctioned events. David Case started out playing cornhole in his yard with friends and family and wanted to play more often but couldn’t find anything. He found one league which lead him to find another league to play in.
“Man, there’s got to be an easier way to figure out how to find these leagues,” Case said.
To combat this, he created his own Facebook page called I-80 Cornhole. I-80 Cornhole is an informational page for the players. It’s not a page to run tournaments off of but more of a site where players can go to find tournaments. It provides a central location for anything cornhole related in the Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney, Council Bluffs and Des Moines Iowa area. It helps players look for somewhere to play or if they have a tournament or league they run, they can promote it on this page.
Future.
You turn on ESPN, and most people would expect to see SportsCenter, a basketball, baseball or football game. However, more recently, you can turn on the TV and watch professional cornhole players compete against each other.
“Over the last year here in Nebraska, cornhole has blown up. You went from not being to find any tournaments, and now there are tournaments every week almost every other day,” Case said. He accredits most of the widespread growth due to it being on ESPN and the ACL spreading its reach to more than the Midwest.
“I think it’s going to be something where it’s gonna be possibly like a FIFA Cup for cornhole and one day maybe being an Olympic sport instead of curling,” Case said.
There’s something that makes people keep playing cornhole, and there’s a reason it’s becoming so much more popular around the country.
“I think a lot of it is getting out and hanging out with people. It’s not so much about the competition. Obviously, if you’re good, you want to win and if you’re not having a great day, it does kind of suck, but that kind of thrives you to do better the next time,” Case said. “It’s something that so many people can do that if you do it enough, you can get good.”
