Opinion
Traditions, tips for college studentsʼ most popular recreational lawn games, sports
April 14, 2010
Aside from frisbee golf (frolfing?) and broomball, bean bags have to be the biggest summer time hit for the college age recreational athlete.
While frisbee golf is often regarded as the pastime of hippy-like college students, the bean bag spans the spectrum.
Everyone plays it, but few are good at it.
This game, known as “cornhole” is known as an American pastime and I wonder if it’s mostly because you can buy the stands with beer holders.
For whatever reason, the game is rarely played anywhere else. In fact there is an association that monitors and states the official rules of the game, the American Cornhole Association. Tournaments take place in Ohio where the game is rumored to have originated.
Oddly enough, the exact origin of the game is unknown. Considering the original bags were from feed sacks filled with corn, I would assume it was somewhere in rural America, most likely the midwest.
Wherever it originated, the game developed to have official rules, teams and a rather astute following.
I have arranged a few selections of terminology to aid your summer cornhole-ing. It should be helpful.
Cowpie: A bag that lands on the board which is worth one point.
Blocker: A cowpie that lands in front of the hole, essentially blocking the whole from sliders.
Gusher, double deuce or catorce: Four cornholes by a single player in a single round.
Leprechaun: When a player lands all four bags on the board and none in the hole.
Shucker: When a player tosses a bag and it strikes an opposing players bag knocking it off the board.
Swish: A bag that goes direcly into the hole without touching the board.
Along with cornhole, there are quite a few other games that can be played on the lawn. Some would be, bocce ball, an Italian game played with eight balls, two teams of players and one smaller ball often referred to as a tomato. The goal being to toss the balls nearest the tomato.
The team that gets their bocces the closes wins that round. Once a team reaches 21 points, that team wins. The trickier the terrain the better!
Another game would be ladder golf, a game with tethered balls on a ladder like contraption.
The goal is to throw the balls over the ladder rung, the highest of which is worth three points. Game sets for any of these games can easily be found at Shopko in town.
So, now everyone has plenty of reason to get outside and enjoy a few games.
Cornhole is a very important game to American youth and is affectionately described by Colbert as a cross between “horseshoes and sodomy.”
Good luck in all your lawn game adventures and enjoy the warm weather that is headed, assuredly, towards us.
Chaia means life and Kimi-Chaia Lindberg tries to live it to the fullest. Writing is what she loves. Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese and English are the words she uses. Tel Aviv is where she is inspired.