Who would have thought throwing a cloth-covered bag of beans onto a slick, sloped board and into a hole with a six-inch diameter sitting twenty-seven feet away could be so much fun?
Or that there is plenty of strategy involved when it comes to purchasing the beanbags as well as to the type of well-timed, underhanded throw you utilize while aiming for the board, which is four feet long and two feet wide?
Cornhole has been played for well over 200 years, but its status as a cultural phenomenon began about seven years ago when ESPN opted to air American Cornhole League matches. There are fifty-two teams nationwide with ACL affiliations—sixteen major league and thirty-six minor league—but in reality millions of people play the game strictly for amusement (and maybe some adult beverages) at football tailgates, beach outings, backyard barbecues and bars.
People in Centre County can search the internet to find cornhole games, or leagues around the Keystone State. Or, in a much more uncomplicated fashion, they can visit Voodoo Brewery in Lemont on Mondays or Axemann Brewery in Bellefonte on Wednesdays or Doggie’s Pub in downtown State College any day to find cornhole boards, games and leagues.
Put the bag in the hole and it’s three points; place it on the board and it’s one. If, for example, you would hole two bags and place one on the board, that’s seven points. If your opponent holes one and lands two, your net would be a plus-two.
The cost of a cornhole set can range from $50 to $300 depending on the product quality. Beer is not included, but it is part of the fabric of the Voodoo and Axemann leagues.
“Yeah, cornhole and beer, that’s a match made in heaven, for sure,” says Wes Day, Voodoo Brewery’s general manager and event coordinator.
At Voodoo, serenely tucked beside Spring Creek behind Maine Bay and Berry in Lemont, about twenty people showed up to compete in league play on a 93-degree, late-afternoon Monday this summer. Four boards occupied eight spots in the parking lot that normally would contain vehicles, and players who were dressed as lightly and coolly as possible competed in league play in a random draw that could pit friends or strangers against each other in two-person teams.
“We used to only be open [on Mondays] just to do the cornhole league itself, so the league itself has always driven business,” Day says. “A lot of the weekly players are also regulars here, so it’s just another night to be able to spend with the same kind of crowd that you’re used to. And these guys that are showing up for cornhole are most likely going to be coming back down for trivia, they’re going to probably come back for bingo. We have a really good time with it.”
Competition can attract players, but it’s more the camaraderie at Voodoo. “It’s just being around people and getting the chance to meet new people,” says Bellefonte resident Kenny Grabey, who also runs the Wednesday cornhole league at Axemann. “I’ve been playing for two years now and I’ve met a lot of new people around cornhole and guys that I see here and then out into town too. So it’s just that connection piece.”
One of Grabey’s opponents that night was Doug Banker of Julian. “I didn’t know Kenny till I started playing cornhole and now we’re friends,” he says. “The way this is played here, you get different partners each round, so it’s a good way to meet people.
“And it’s fun. I’m a competitive person, so I like that aspect of it too. And you can go play other places all around Pennsylvania; you can look up on your phone and be like, ‘Oh, here’s a place on Thursday, here’s a place on Friday.”
Banker and Grabey—and many others—choose to toss a few bags on Wednesdays as well at Axemann Brewery on Bellefonte’s Axemann Road in the sizable former home of Cerro Metal Products, which sits just a few feet from the swift-flowing stream known as Logan Branch.
The cornhole atmosphere is much different inside at Axemann than outside at Voodoo. With more than thirty people turning out on this particular summer Wednesday, airborne beanbags striking the boards made it sound like there was a roof being shingled, and more bags were tumbling into holes than balls do at a mini-golf course.
Grabey was the man in charge as players who hadn’t registered on the Scoreholio app handed their $10 entry fee to him. The app, Grabey says, randomly pair entrants into teams, and scores and standings can be seen not only on the app but on a large-screen TV hanging inside the brewery. Each two-man team plays six games, and points are accumulated—twenty-one for each of the winners and whatever the total points were that the losers of that game might have tallied.
Aside from the competition and a beer or three in oversized mugs, players enjoy the social aspects of the evening. “It’s competitive but it’s also very fun,” says Dave Lingenfelter of State College. “We just like to have the different crowds in here and anyone can have a great night or a bad night, but it comes from a competitive spirit. It’s a good place to meet people and it’s just a good night out.”
Chris Rand of State College was eager to answer the question about whether the evening is social. “That’s very much one of the reasons why I like to come here,” he says. “I met a lady a professional drag racer and a guy who does deep well fracking and stuff like that. People that you don’t normally meet in your daily life and people of different political persuasions. You get out here and you see a mixed crowd and you get to see the honest side of America, so to speak. I really like that. And it’s cheaper than a movie ticket.”
Luke Murphy of State College was paired with Rand in the first round and came away a winner. It was the same exacta of competition and social life that attracted Murphy to cornhole outings a couple of years ago. “The people are awesome,” Murphy says. “I started coming here a couple of years back and met some of these guys here, and it was competition without the anger. I get people to hang out with and a weekly routine just to get through the week.”
Murphy says he has walked away with some cash in the past. “There are times when you feel like, ‘yes, this is my game,’ and there are times when you go, ‘why did I buy bags,’” he says.
A few of the participants note that typically there are four women who play regularly at Axemann, but on this night, Alyssa Forsythe of Mingoville was the only one. In her second-round game, the bags she tossed were like glue on the board … she couldn’t miss. “That was a lucky game,” she says with a laugh but adds that she has cashed out a couple of times. “It’s not always like that.”
She says she’s been playing at Axemann for a couple of years. “We all kind of know each other and how we throw and we have a good time together,” she says.
Banker loves to play and searches his Scoreholio app no matter his location; he says he can find games anywhere. “I was at a conference last year on the Maryland border and I go on the app and I find a place seven miles away,” he explains. “There were like fifty people playing at a VFW. People know when you’re not from around there but everyone was so friendly.
“And I have a family cabin up in Canada and last year when I was up there I got on the app and found a place, and now I can say I am an international cornhole player.”
Some cornhole events are staged for people to make money and some are held to raise money. Centre Volunteers in Medicine conducts its Centre County Cornhole Classic in May and holds separate brackets for social players and competitive players.
Nittany Sports Centre near State College Regional Airport has hosted a tournament with as many as seventy boards on the floor, according to Lingenfelter, and a few players were affiliated with the American Cornhole League. “Those guys don’t miss,” Lingenfelter says.
If you haven’t tried the game, you might be missing out, according to Grabey, who never thought he’d find cornhole on television and now cannot stop watching it. “Everybody wants to win, but the other thing is we help people get better,” Grabey says.
“If we notice that somebody is a little bit newer, that they’re just coming out, we want to welcome them and make them a part of it. We want to help people grow and find a love for this game that we found in it.” T&G
Jim Carlson is a freelance writer living in State College.
