Oct. 20, 2007
Cornhole, A Version of Horseshoes, Catches On
By JC Reindl
Toledo Blade
It was an hour before the start of Monday night football recently, and Old Orchard neighbors Steve Schloz and Dave Johnson were getting ready to warm up in the backyard.
They flipped on the outdoor lighting, turned up the classic rock music, and popped open cans of beer. Then they began pitching cloth bags filled with dry corn across Johnson's driveway.
The two aimed their tosses toward a pair of wooden platforms with holes the size of large grapefruits. The first few bags hit the platforms, but missed their target -- the hole. Then Schloz, 49, threw one that arched through the air before falling straight down the middle of the target, barely touching any wood.
"If we didn't have regular jobs we'd be out here 24 hours a day," said Schloz, as both men laughed. "Am I wrong?"
"No, you're right," replied Johnson, 51.
Their addiction is the recreational game cornhole that's gaining in popularity at festivals, tailgate parties, bars, fraternity houses, and backyard barbecues throughout northwest Ohio and other pockets of the country.
Cornhole has no set demographic, and is played by the young, middle-aged, and the old. Many consider it a safer and less cumbersome version of horseshoes and it shares a name with scatological slang for a certain body part.
Students at Bowling Green State University say it has also become the campus's newest beer-drinking game and tailgate pastime.
"Most every (student) house you go to is going to have a set of cornhole boards," said Carl Brinkley, 21, a junior and member of Lambda Chi Alpha. "I'm from Akron and it's just catching on there. Everyone just played horseshoes before, but now they're starting to play cornhole."
Variations of the game have existed throughout the world for years, under a variety of names such as bean bag toss, bags, and lately Baggo. It's widely agreed that the cornhole game originated more than 60 years ago in Cincinnati and has only recently been spreading beyond the region, according to Mike Wilson, president of the American Cornhole Association.
"I'm from the west side of Cincinnati and that's where we played it in the '50s," said Wilson, who views the game as a cultural export. "The only people that played it outside of Cincinnati in my opinion were displaced Buckeyes."
The game is typically played by teams of two that race to 21 points. Players pitch eight 1-pound bags of corn between a pair of tilted platforms -- usually made of wood but sometimes plastic -- spaced about 30 feet apart. Each bag that falls through the 6-inch hole scores three points, and bags that miss the hole but don't slide off the board score one point. In one variation of the game, winners must score exactly 21 points and teams that exceed the mark are penalized.
There are tournaments in Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, and as far away as Florida, California, and even Australia.
Chicago's Soldier Field hosted in July the first Windy City Cornhole Classic, which drew more than 1,700 competitors, according to its promoter. Cornhole boards have become standard game equipment on Carnival Cruise Lines ships, and have been played by U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The World Championship was held in July in South Webster, Ohio. This summer also marked the end of filming for "Cornhole: The Movie," a "mockumentary" that writer and director Timothy Clarke, a Cincinnati native now living in Los Angeles, said he plans to show at next year's Sundance Film Festival.
Contact JC Reindl at:jreindl(at)theblade.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
By JC Reindl
Toledo Blade
It was an hour before the start of Monday night football recently, and Old Orchard neighbors Steve Schloz and Dave Johnson were getting ready to warm up in the backyard.
They flipped on the outdoor lighting, turned up the classic rock music, and popped open cans of beer. Then they began pitching cloth bags filled with dry corn across Johnson's driveway.
The two aimed their tosses toward a pair of wooden platforms with holes the size of large grapefruits. The first few bags hit the platforms, but missed their target -- the hole. Then Schloz, 49, threw one that arched through the air before falling straight down the middle of the target, barely touching any wood.
"If we didn't have regular jobs we'd be out here 24 hours a day," said Schloz, as both men laughed. "Am I wrong?"
"No, you're right," replied Johnson, 51.
Their addiction is the recreational game cornhole that's gaining in popularity at festivals, tailgate parties, bars, fraternity houses, and backyard barbecues throughout northwest Ohio and other pockets of the country.
Cornhole has no set demographic, and is played by the young, middle-aged, and the old. Many consider it a safer and less cumbersome version of horseshoes and it shares a name with scatological slang for a certain body part.
Students at Bowling Green State University say it has also become the campus's newest beer-drinking game and tailgate pastime.
"Most every (student) house you go to is going to have a set of cornhole boards," said Carl Brinkley, 21, a junior and member of Lambda Chi Alpha. "I'm from Akron and it's just catching on there. Everyone just played horseshoes before, but now they're starting to play cornhole."
Variations of the game have existed throughout the world for years, under a variety of names such as bean bag toss, bags, and lately Baggo. It's widely agreed that the cornhole game originated more than 60 years ago in Cincinnati and has only recently been spreading beyond the region, according to Mike Wilson, president of the American Cornhole Association.
"I'm from the west side of Cincinnati and that's where we played it in the '50s," said Wilson, who views the game as a cultural export. "The only people that played it outside of Cincinnati in my opinion were displaced Buckeyes."
The game is typically played by teams of two that race to 21 points. Players pitch eight 1-pound bags of corn between a pair of tilted platforms -- usually made of wood but sometimes plastic -- spaced about 30 feet apart. Each bag that falls through the 6-inch hole scores three points, and bags that miss the hole but don't slide off the board score one point. In one variation of the game, winners must score exactly 21 points and teams that exceed the mark are penalized.
There are tournaments in Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, and as far away as Florida, California, and even Australia.
Chicago's Soldier Field hosted in July the first Windy City Cornhole Classic, which drew more than 1,700 competitors, according to its promoter. Cornhole boards have become standard game equipment on Carnival Cruise Lines ships, and have been played by U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The World Championship was held in July in South Webster, Ohio. This summer also marked the end of filming for "Cornhole: The Movie," a "mockumentary" that writer and director Timothy Clarke, a Cincinnati native now living in Los Angeles, said he plans to show at next year's Sundance Film Festival.
Contact JC Reindl at:jreindl(at)theblade.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
