When Hobbies Become Sports: The Cornhole Game

Even though Cornhole players can be found virtually everywhere, the game is more popular in the west and the north than it is in the south. The game is gaining in popularity, and more people are taking an interest in how it is played. Tournaments are even organized in many areas so that players can get together and enjoy the game and spend time with one another. They can win cash and prizes, and they can also simply have a great time with their friends and with fellow Cornhole players. How the Cornhole game came about, though, is something that not everyone knows about. Some think it started in Europe, and others think that it started in the United States. For people who think it started in America, the disagreement is about which city and state it actually started in. Some believe that it was Chicago, Illinois, and others believe that it was Cleveland, Ohio. Both sides have good-natured arguments and quite a rivalry going about where the game actually originated.

The people in Cleveland, Ohio often call it the Cornhole game, and the people in Chicago, Illinois generally call it the bean bag toss. The argument, though, is that the game is the same, regardless of what it is called. Overall, it is, but there is a difference that not everyone is aware of. Officially, the board size for the Cornhole game is two feet by four feet, and the board size for the bean bag toss is two feet by three feet. Some people, however, play what they still call the Cornhole game with the smaller board, and they do this because the board is easier to maneuver. Not only will it easily fit in the bed of a pickup truck, but it also fits in the trunk of a standard-sized car. This means that it is easy to take to parties, tailgating get-togethers, and other events, making it more enjoyable more often for a larger group of people. Coming from such humble beginnings, the game has become something of a sensation in many places where it had previously not even been heard of.

The game got its name because people used cloth bags filled with corn, and they tried to throw them through a hole in a wooden board. When the bag went through the hole, the person who threw it earned points, and this was also true of bags that landed on the board and did not fall off � although they were not worth as much. In time, the game changed somewhat. Boards are now made of plastic as well as wood, bags are sewn on machines, and the cloth that is used to make them can also vary somewhat. People also started filling the bags with plastic pellets or small, round plastic beads, because these could get wet and not become damaged. Some of the Cornhole bags used to become unusable because the dried beans or dried corn would be damaged when they got wet. The game, however, continues to remain basically the same and continues to have many followers.

By: Dave Roth

Dave Roth runs a site that sells cornhole games. In addition to free building dimensions and rules, the site also carries discount weather resistant bags and boards.

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