You can tell if a cornhole player is good by the sound alone. A thud flat on the wooden board shows control. A slide off of the slick tilted surface into the gravel might elicit an ‘oof’.
But the best players barely make a sound. Their bags leave the players hand, soar 20 feet or so and land cleanly in the board’s hole, without touching anything in between.
Frank Geers, founder of the Cincinnati-based American Cornhole Organization, said there’s a name for it.
“The number one move to perfect is an airmail,” he said. “No one can stop an airmail.”
Cornhole is pretty basic. You and an opponent take turns throwing bean-filled bags at a board across a lawn. A bag on the board is one point. A bag in the hole is three. First to 21 wins.
But, the origins of the simple sport are murky. Some say the earliest iteration of the game came from Native American communities. Others point to 14th century Germany.
Regardless of where it was invented, Cincinnati claims to have taken it from a backyard pastime to a professional sport.
“I would call it really the birthplace of cornhole,” said Josh Brown, a spokesperson for the American Cornhole Association, founded in Cincinnati.
Pitchin’ the game as a sport
The thuds of bags on a board is a familiar soundtrack to graduation parties today. But, in the early 2000s, Geers said few outside of Cincinnati played the game.
“The rest of the country really didn't have a clue what was going on at this point in time,” he said.
He discovered cornhole at a Bengals tailgate, where people mostly played the game to pass time before the players took the field. Geers believed cornhole had the potential to be the main event. So, he founded the American Cornhole Organization in 2005.
“I still believe that this once backyard game can become the world's biggest sport,” he said.
He wasn’t alone in that vision: A competing group – the American Cornhole Association on the West Side of Cincinnati formed two years prior. Brown said the ACA started to organize the sport by publishing basic rules online, like how far apart boards should be and what scoring methods should be used.
“Those rules and regulations really spearheaded the ability to run cohesive, regulated tournaments,” Brown said.
Geers, and the American Cornhole Organization on the East Side made the game even more competitive.
“We created the idea of creating a ranking system, a point system. So you're chasing something. You're chasing the chance to be the best player on the planet by earning points, playing in competitions all across the country,” he said.
The ACO now has around 5,000 members and 162 chapters across the country.
The game’s growth
Geer attributes the sports’ growth to its accessibility. Thousands have taken to the game at tailgates, family reunions and fraternity front lawns. Teenagers, seniors and those with questionable hand-eye coordination can all give “pitchin’” their best effort.
With a backwards hat and shades, Geers looked the part of a tailgater as he threw out bags and cornhole lingo, outside of ACO’s headquarters in Camp Dennison. A ‘Cincinnati slide’ knocks another bag in the hole. A ‘pinwheel’ rolls over other bags.
Those are pro-level moves. Geers’ typical gameplay advice is much simpler.
“Put the bag in the hole more than your competition and you’re gonna win everytime,” he said as he pitched a bag.
Not everyone aspires to be a pro, but Geers said there are more opportunities than ever to play. The ACO hosts more than 35 major tournaments and, each year, crowns a King or Queen of Cornhole in the annual world championships.
Now, ESPN even televises matches from the American Cornhole League, another host of professional cornhole tournaments. Geers said the game is also spreading outside the U.S.
“Our world championships has had players from Australia, has players from Germany, has had players from Canada, Italy, UK, Australia,” he said. “So, our hope and dream is that more and more international players will start to take hold of this sport.”’
Ohio’s cornhole claims to fame
Now, cornhole is one of the most played sports in the U.S, according to a 2023 IPSOS poll. It took a lot of innovation to get to this point of popularity – and Geers and his organization claim to be at the forefront.
He said he replaced the traditional corn kernel-filled bags with resin-filled ones to better standardize their weight. He and his uncle pioneered a dual-sided bag material where one side sticks and the other slides. And he said he helped answer an existential question: Should the game be called cornhole or bags?
“You're not watching them play bags on ESPN, you are watching them playing cornhole,” he said resolutely.
Whatever you may call it, Geers said Ohio is in much of the DNA of the sport. Though, it’s unclear exactly why Cincinnati was the hotbed. Some theorize German immigrants brought the game over.
The Buckeye state still has a major role in cornhole today. The American Cornhole Association manufactures bags and boards outside of Celina. The state also produces professional players, like Jeremiah Ellis from Columbus, who won the ACO Singles World Championship in the 2022-2023 season.
The ACO will crown its next cornhole champion in July.
These players aren’t just pitching with a beer in hand. They’re committed.
“We have players that are so passionate about us, they've tattooed their body to become lifetime members of our organization,” Geers said.
