HOME HISTORY MATERIALS TOOLS BUILD HOW TO PLAY
The history of Bean Bag Toss as we know it is made up of several stories passed down through the generations. It is based on the more common and well known Cornhole game. One story claims that the game was first played during the 14th century in Germany, only to be rediscovered in Kentucky within the last century.
Many American scholars confirm that a game of very similar nature was played amongst Native Americans in Midwest America, who filled pigs' bladders with dried beans and competitively tossed them for entertainment, notably, the Black Hawk tribe in Illinois. Despite debate about whether the game was actually created in the Kentucky farmland, Champaign, IL or the West Side of Cincinnati, some sources credit the invention to western Cincinnati, but by whom or when is unknown.
Popularity of the game began to increase in the late 1990s in Cincinnati area universities, particularly Miami University where Cornhole became a mainstay at parties and as a casual drinking game. Helped along by the advent of commercial Cornhole bags and boards under the trademark Baggo, Cornhole is now a popular game in the Midwestern and Southern United States, especially in college towns.
