Hundreds attend cornhole tournament

A steady clunk of bean bags hitting wood dominated Dunn Meadow Wednesday at the inaugural “World’s Largest Cornhole Tournament,” which took place during the All Campus Celebration in conjunction with “Celebrate IU” week.\nHundreds of students and administrators were in attendance. The event included a cornhole tournament, free food, a bonfire, the unveiling of the Hutton Honors College cornerstone and music from the IU Soul Revue, Straight No Chaser and Ladies First.\nThe cornhole tournament started at 3 p.m., with 16 teams competing in the first round. Dozens of cornhole boards, some painted with campus organizations’ logos, lined Dunn Meadow.\nSophomores Brandon Liegibel and Dustin Pugh won the tournament and will choose between tickets to this weekend’s Bob Dylan concert and seats in a luxury box for an IU football game, among other options.\nJuniors Peter Wallace and Jared Chasey were cornhole partners during Little 500 week and decided to team up again, they said.\n“This is our first time playing since Little 5 week,” Chasey said. \n“My goal is for Jared to get a couple of points,” Wallace said. “Just for him to hit the board once or twice.” \nIU President Michael McRobbie threw a bag for the ceremonial cornhole toss, which knocked in two bags with one throw.\n“I’d like to say I’m an expert,” McRobbie laughed. “But that’s \nnot true.”\nHomecoming week has been in the works since the beginning of the year, said junior Heather Shindeldecker, the Student Alumni Association’s co-director of programming for special events. The Alumni Association has been focusing on cornhole specifically for the past three weeks.\nThe bonfire portion of the evening was sponsored by the Union Board and is a homecoming tradition, said Lauren Douglass, Union Board director of spirits and traditions. This year, for the first time, the bonfire event will include burning shirts from other colleges. This entails trading up to 200 shirts from different colleges for an IU Homecoming shirt. The first 10 from other colleges will be burned in the bonfire while the other 190 will be donated to the Salvation Army. \n“We got the idea, funny enough, from Penn State,” Douglass said. “It’s really a wonderful thing. It’s nice for students to get out and just have fun while at the same time doing a philanthropy event.”\nIU administrators also enjoyed the games.\nDean of Students Dick McKaig played a game of cornhole and lost 21-1, he said. \n“I have a set at home with the IU logo,” McKaig said. “This (tournament) certainly fits in with the homecoming theme. What could be better?”