Korri Wojack – Staff Writer

The Campus Activities Board is hosting a tournament this coming Friday in the Southwest Field, where teams of two will compete against others to win the grand prize.
The event starts at 4 pm on Friday, Oct. 15, and students can register their teams via SignUp Genius by accessing the QR code from one of the posters all over campus. This is indeed a tournament, so CAB has created a 32 team roster with both a winners and a losers bracket. Each team can expect to play at least two games, and if their skills are on point, hopefully many more. This will be the third Cornhole tournament that CAB has hosted, and they hope to keep the tradition alive and well as the years go on.

This will be the third Cornhole tournament that CAB has hosted, and they hope to keep the tradition alive and well as the years go on.

That’s right folks. We’re talking about Bags, or as most of the world likes to call it, Cornhole. A classic yard game played at tailgates, cookouts and senior grad parties everywhere. However, Cornhole has come a long way since its humble beginnings.
Some believe Cornhole originated in Germany, where in 1325, a cabinet maker named Matthias Kuepermann watched children in his village throw stones into a dugout hole in the dirt.
The children would often injure themselves from a misthrow, or from the stones bouncing off of the ground and up to their shins. Kuepermann was said to have invented a less dangerous way to play by using a box made of cabinet materials lying around the shop and grain-filled bags. This may be an early version of the game, although nobody is quite sure. However, it seems people often love a sport involving getting handheld things into random objects, such as hoops, holes, goalposts, endzones, etc, so perhaps the general idea of Cornhole was a widespread human achievement.
However widespread it may be, though, the name has quite often changed. In Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, a good percentage of the population call it Bags. The rest of the country is pretty even about calling it Cornhole, however, there are some rarer monikers used when referring to the classic game, Baggo, Sack Toss, Faba Baga, and Indiana Horseshoes, to name a few. No matter where in the United States you are, though, the game of bean bags and wooden boards is no stranger.
Cornhole’s popularity spread widely within the past twenty years or so, especially in the midwestern states consisting mostly of farmland because if my hypothesis is correct, corn is quite an abundant resource around here. Cornhole frenzy soon took off, becoming a staple of barbecues, family game nights, local bar league games, and campgrounds across the nation.
Bars across the United States now host regular Cornhole tournaments. The pastime has slowly turned itself into a sport over the years, even being featured on ESPN for national tournaments, where a participant missing the hole is a rare sight. (Meanwhile, some of us still struggle to even land it on the board).

The great thing about a game like Cornhole is that anyone can do it, the rules are simple, and because of how it’s played it is perfect to chat while you play and make some friends.

Still, why should you spend your precious Friday evening out in the fresh fall air and sunshine, surrounded by fellow Gusties and friends? Well, besides those reasons, the winners will receive either a Fire Cube TV or an Air Fryer, and both members of the team will get a prize. Spectators are more than welcome to come and cheer on their friends while enjoying an amazing day out on the Hill. Good luck Gusties!