The definitive history of cornhole, once Cincinnati's 'best kept secret'

It's a craze that sparked national tournaments with five-figure payouts. A craze that transformed everyday people into professional athletes who train with extensive cardio and restrictive diets. A craze that was rocked last year by a cheating scandal known as "BagGate."

"Everywhere you can get 27 feet apart, that's where (people) play," said Fin Walter, the "loudmouth" for the American Cornhole Organization who flaunts a cornhole tattoo on his right bicep. "It's insanity to the greatest degree."

This is today's cornhole. And, arguably, it all started in backyards in Cincinnati, Ohio.

But how exactly did Cincinnati's favorite pastime move out of the Queen City's backyards, across the nation and onto the big stage? And, perhaps, more importantly, do we have the East Side or the West Side to thank for this Cincinnati specialty?

In case you've been living under a rock, or have never been to a high school graduation party or football tailgate, cornhole is a game in which people toss bags of resin beads (formerly corn kernels) into a small hole in slanted boards placed 27 feet apart. For a long time, a player's biggest stressor was trying to score while not spilling the beer lodged in their non-throwing hand. But today, the stakes have become much higher.

Did cornhole start in Cincinnati?

Local lore tells us that cornhole originated on the West Side of Cincinnati sometime in the 1960s. But whether that is really the case is up for debate.

Cornhole seemingly first appears in written record in the 1800s, when a Chicago-based man by the name of Heyliger Adams de Windt patented "Parlor Quoits." Quoits is a game, which has a long history in England, where players earn points for tossing rings on or near a stake. It's kind of like horseshoes.

Like today's cornhole, de Windt's version featured an inclined game board with a hole and bags that players try to throw into the hole. "The opening of the board is somewhat larger than the bags, which constitute the quoits," de Windt wrote, "and which are formed of cloth or other fabric, scantily filled with beans, rice, or like material."

There are also clear differences, too. In this earlier version, a bell hung from the top of the board. If players hit the bell, their team lost 10 points. The bags weren't explicitly filled with corn kernels (or resin, like today). Scoring rules were different and key guideline information is left out.

Earlier cornhole origin stories from before de Windt filed his patent point to Native American tribes, pioneers in the mountains of Kentucky and 14th-century Germans. These stories feature groups tossing corn- or grain-filled bags into some sort of hole. So, did German immigrants bring cornhole to Cincinnati with them?

That we may not know for sure. But we do know the cornhole craze took off on Cincinnati's West Side.

'Cincinnati's best kept secret'

The exact year cornhole started booming on Cincinnati's West Side is unclear. Some articles point to the 1960s, while others suggest the 1980s.

Regardless, once it was there, it sure wasn't going anywhere.

The (Cincinnati) Enquirer started writing stories about cornhole in 2002, and at that point, the game was considered "Cincinnati's best kept secret" and virtually contained to west of Interstate 71. Most of the sets were homemade, which meant that the gameboard and bags weren't always the same across sets. Even the distance from which one threw the bag varied from backyard to backyard.

Cornhole was clearly about having a good time with a cold beer in hand.

"The West Side of Cincinnati is very family-oriented. I think this game is built for families," said Frank Geers, founder and president of the American Cornhole Organization. "And the West Side of Cincinnati is about tailgating and about outdoor fun. I think cornhole is that."

The game didn't seem like it was going to make it over to the East Side any time soon. Enquirer coverage from the time featured interviews with East Siders who preferred the likes of "more refined" activities like croquet or badminton. One interviewee even suggested the word "cornhole" would ruffle too many feathers on Cincinnati's East Side.

It didn't matter to these early-2000s West Siders though.

"East Siders are always looking to find bigger and better," a White Oak resident told Enquirer reporter Shannon Russell in 2002, "but West Siders are cool with a 12-pack and a side of boards."

Less than a year later, the tide started to shift.

An Enquirer story from October 2003 about a Union Township resident who built cornhole sets in his garage suggests just that. "He still thinks the cornhole game is a West Side craze, but he has lots of requests from East Siders," the story read.

As the game grew, one thing stood in its way. Cornhole's lack of standardization threatened its future.

What are 'East Side Style' and 'West Side Style' cornhole?

By 2003 and 2004, cornhole was taking off.

Bags were tossed at church festivals on the East Side, NASCAR races in Kentucky, backyards in Tennessee and West Virginia and Bengals' tailgates, where players taught the opposing teams' fans how to play. But different yards had different throwing distances, weights of bags and other discrepancies.

There were different styles of playing even across Cincinnati. According to a patent filed by three Cincinnatians in 2003, there is "West Side Style" and "East Side Style." In both cases, a team must score exactly 21 points to win. However, in "West Side Style," if a team goes over 21 points, their score goes down to 13 points. In "East Side Style," if a team goes over 21 points in a round, then the total points they scored that round are subtracted from the score they held before that round started. In both cases, teams keep playing until they reach exactly 21.

It was time for some Cincinnatians to step in and create some ground rules.

First came the American Cornhole Association, which was started in 2003 by Mike Whitton, who was born and raised in Mount Healthy where he played "corn toss" as a kid. The ACA offered standardized rules and regulations for cornhole as well as cornhole-themed merchandise.

Then, the East Side entered the field. Arguably, this turned the game into a sport.

Cornhole becomes a sport

“Our organization has our DNA in basically everything cornhole,” said Geers, who started the Milford-based American Cornhole Organization in 2005 to create the "worldwide governing body of the sport of cornhole."

Geers and his crew not only worked to standardize the game, but they made a series of innovations that became essential to the modern-day sport.

These include swapping the corn kernels inside the bags with resin (to avoid mildew or attracting rodents to the kernels). He also created the two-sided fabric bag. In his version, one side of the bag is made of the traditional canvas material that slides across the board. The other side is made of a synthetic suede that “sticks” to the board and blocks competitors’ bags. These slick-and-stick bags led to players developing “trick shots," according to Geers. He also created the concept of singles play, which made it possible to determine the best player in the world.

But perhaps Geers' greatest feat is spreading cornhole around the nation and across the globe.

How Cincinnati launched cornhole to the big leagues

If there was one thing Geers was going to do, it was to get people to notice cornhole.

His organization has run an annual cornhole world championship since 2006 and built a nationwide tour, which as of this year has 35 stops from coast to coast. Here, professional cornhole players toss bags for all the glory.

They’ve partnered with big events like the MLB game at the "Field of Dreams" movie site in Iowa and the Senior Olympics. Geers even partnered with Carnival Cruise to put the game on cruise ships. ESPN covered the ACO on the "Kenny Mayne's Wider World of Sports" series, and Geers has even previously been quoted about a desire to create a cornhole reality TV show. 

“We took (cornhole) out of the backyard and onto the front page," Geers said, paraphrasing Walter.

Cincinnati even brought cornhole to the big screen when a former St. Xavier High School graduate made a mockumentary feature film about the game titled "Cornhole: The Movie."

What cornhole looks like today

Today, people outside of Ohio are trying to get in on the action. 

Professional cornhole is shown on ESPN and is part of the American Cornhole League, started in 2015 by Stacey Moore of North Carolina. Moore might not be a Cincinnatian, but Geers maintains that the ACL wouldn’t exist without Cincinnati’s innovations to the game.

After all, Geers suggests – as have many others in the past – that Cincinnati is "the cornhole capital of the world."

That’s something West Siders and East Siders can both agree on. 

And if cornhole can bring the East Side and West Side together, as a Mount Healthy resident told The Enquirer in 2003, it's "symbolic of world peace."