SUN CITY – Remember bean bags from your childhood?
You tossed them around, played catch with them, threw them at targets on trees, walls, and floors, and tossed them into rings on the ground. The idea was to throw a bag to a pre-determined spot to score points. Many sports such as golf, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, basketball, water polo, and even football (to some degree) derive their rules from this basic bean bag activity.
Corn toss, bean bag, bean toss, soft horseshoes, or Indiana Horseshoes – the activity has many names, and some say it has ancient roots. There is some evidence that the game originated in Germany in the 14th century and was rediscovered in the hills of Kentucky about a century ago. No one knows for sure, but the volunteers in the American Corn Hole Association (ACA) are now carrying the national torch for the game. The group was formed a few decades ago in the Cincinnati area to do what almost every sporting or recreational activity does these days – standardize the game and create a universally accepted set of rules and customs.
Fast forward to Sun City, about six years ago: A group of neighbors started spending summer evenings or weekends tossing bags at holes in boxes in a cul de sac. They talked about forming an organization, holding tournaments, giving away prizes, and socializing formally around their favorite game.
Enter Gordon Young, a six-year resident of Neighborhood 36 on the far western edge of the community. And enter the modern game of bags.
Young led an effort to prepare a proposal to the Community Association staff last year, and in November of 2011, Bags became the 45th and newest charter group in Sun City.
“We had to have a minimum of 25 persons interested in the activity, and then we could get a charter,” he says. His wife Janet is the secretary, Donald Peszek is vice president, and George Kugler is treasurer.
The group plays bags on Monday and Thursday afternoons in the large room at the new Fountain View Center.
“It is easy to play. It’s a great leisure-time game, and the camaraderie around the boxes and bags is wonderful,” Young says. “The game’s closest relation is horseshoes, but bags are much lighter and easier to play with than the heavier horseshoes, especially for children.”
His club is taking the game from a casual party activity to an organized sport that has a life and identity of its own.
The original game used corn-filled bags and was known as “soft horseshoes.” Today, Young says, the bags game played in Sun City uses popcorn, not corn, kernels. “Corn kernels eventually break down and disintegrate, and the bags collapse and start spurting powder when thrown. So now we use bags filled with popcorn kernels, which are much harder and more durable.”
Bags weigh 14-16 ounces, and a game is played with boxes 27 feet apart.
“It’s 33 feet from hole to hole, and in some cases we use 21 feet for players who can’t throw a bag 27 feet,” Young says.
A game goes to 21 points and takes from 5 to 15 minutes to play, depending on the skill of the players. Bags thrown into a hole count three points, and ones ending up on the box count one point.
“If each player or team has an equal number of bags in the hole or on the box, they cancel each other out, and there is no score,” Young says. “You have to have more bags in the hole or on the box than your opponent to score points. At our gatherings, players can come anytime during a three-hour period and play as much as they wish. It’s all very casual and emphasizes fun and relaxation and light competition.”
Bags is played both outside and inside. The club has submitted a proposal to CAM to convert half of the horseshoe pits near Eakin Field to bags lanes for outside use in warm weather.
“That is in the planning stages and is a future possibility,” Young says. “The horseshoe pits are not used very much, and we believe this could be a way to increase the activity there.”
Young himself is a classic example of a joiner and socializer. He plays in the softball league, plays pickleball on the Tall Oaks Tennis Club courts, and is always looking for socializing activities in his neighborhood or with friends.
He also is a bags statistician. “I’m keeping track of the scoring statistics among the players,” he says. “I like to record consecutive shots into a hole by the best players. I’m hoping to build a statistical history of our games and tournaments.”
Now THAT’S dedication to a game.
