Shown here: Augustus McGursky, recognized by many as the father of modern cornhole.
Born in 1885 in the steamy swamps of the Florida keys, McGursky (nicknamed "McGurk" by his largely illiterate group of grade-school classmates) stopped going to school after the third-grade to work at his parents' swamp-gas refinery1. His parents also hired day-laborers, and a regular group of Native American workers from the Chocktaw Tribe taught him a game they've played for generations: maize hole.
McGursky discovered a natural aptitude for the game. It wasn't until adulthood  and he moved to Huntington Indiana in 1910 that he considered the potential for playing it at large.
One day he set up the maize hole markers, as usual, which were made out of tree bark. He started assembling his throwing bags — large leaves wrapped in twine and filled with kernels of maize (corn). While he was practicing his throw, a traveling anvil salesman named Chuck Crowley2 came through on his way west toward Peoria, IL. While riding his horse and cart down the street in front of the field where McGursky was throwing, his interest was piqued, and he stopped to see what was happening.
McGursky was only too pleased to show him what he was doing — how to score points by hitting the treebark with your throwing bag.
Crowley, a gaming man himself, instantly saw potential for this. After riding off to Peoria and then on his way back east, he stopped at the Wayne Knitting Mill in Fort Wayne, IN to request a few scraps of burlap (the Fort Wayne Historical Society still has bills of sale on display from the mill) He rode down to a woodworking shop, presented plans to a carpenter whose name is now lost to the annals of history, and emerged with two planks, elevated on one end with a folding stand. And, of course, a hole in the top-center.Â
It was late September in 1910, which is the beginning of the anvil off-season, so Crowley had some time to kill. He rode down to Huntington to find McGursky and show him what he developed. McGursky was, of course, thrilled. The two of them started making plans to develop a scoring system. Players would take turns throwing sacks, McGursky said. They need to reach 21 points without going over, or they reset their points back to 15. If a player gets a sack on the board, it's one point. If it goes through the hole, it's worth three.Â
Legend has it that this is when McGursky uttered his famous pragmatic motto that encapsulates the fundamental scoring strategy of cornhole: "If you can't get three points, at least get one point."
Flash forward forty years: It's 1950 in post-war America. McGursky's passion for this game, renamed "cornhole" to appeal to the masses, caught on, with thirty leagues spread within five conferences across the US. The ACL (American Cornhole League) headquarters in Huntington, IN is led by McGurksky, the league's Commissioner. Crowley served as the first Commissioner, but died in office after two years. His prized decorative gold-plated anvil fell on his head when he was polishing it.Â
McGursky, now 65 years old, was still the undisputed Cornhole champion. He retired from professional cornhole for several years to compete in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, the first and only time he traveled abroad. After taking home the gold, he added it to his collection of 8 different championship wins.
Because of his excellent health, driving passion, and ever-active mind, McGurky lived until he was 96, passing away in October of 1981 while raking leaves outside his family home on the northeast side of Huntington. He lived to see his first great-granddaughter born, Augustina Charlene McGursky (named for her great grandfather and his business partner, Chuck). At 30 years old, she will be competing in the 2012 Olympics in London, and is expected to take home the gold medal in Cornhole, adding to her great-grandfather's legacy.)
McGursky's legend lives on. This image, taken a year before his death, is displayed along with his famous motto outside the ACL headquarters. It can also be found as a poster in the bedrooms of countless aspiring cornhole athletes.
1 Swamp Gas refineries were a short-lived industry spawned through the advent of the methane-powered horseless carriage. Due to volatility of methane and the lack of marketing savvy on the part of Everglades Autonomous Carriage Company, who pioneered the methane carriage, it soon lost out to petroleum-based gasoline. The swamp-gas refinery market soon followed.
2 Crowley is a legend in his own right — the character Charlie Cowell, an anvil salesman, from Wilson and Lacey's "The Music Man" was an homage to Crowley, who is said to have been able to cover twenty states in a week with more than 30 anvils in tow.
