Where I Come From: Tailgating Traditions

This is the third of a week-long series of posts sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011. They really annoy Roger Ebert.

I don't have much to say about tailgating. I've done my share, in various parking lots from down by the Dean Dome to Ramshead to Bell Tower to a couple of parking garages. (And yes, a fair number of those spots no longer exist. I swear I'm not the reason why.) The beverages have run from beer to wine to Coke and tiny airplane bottles, and the food has been anything you care to imagine. I just bob along on the surface, going along with whatever the menu may be.

So instead, I'd like to ask a question about the one tailgating tradition I have seen change since I first hit Chapel Hill. When did cornholing arrive? 

I know it started in the Cincinnati/Kentucky area, and that before I left for California, it was nowhere to be found at Carolina games. For that matter, it was barely known in Cincinnati. Yet by the time I made it back to a game in 2007, everybody was tossing bean bags. So how did it explode? I prone to blame these guys, as I know them and their charity work is good, but the things are everywhere. I'm not sure one group of people could spread these things around so quickly.

Anyone got in ideas? How did this sport catch on?