What Is Hacky Sack (Footbag)?

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Hacky Sack, or Footbag, as we know it today, is a modern American sport invented in 1972 by John Stalberger and Mike Marshall of Oregon City, Oregon.

In the game of Footbag, you keep a small ball, called a Hacky Sack, in the air as long as possible, performing cool tricks and moves, without using your hands (some tricks involve the elbows, biceps, etc., but most do not).

A Hacky Sack

So how did John and Mike come up with Footbag? Well, Mike had hand-made a small beanbag, and was kicking it around. Meanwhile, John was recovering from a knee injury, and wanted a fun way to exercise his knees, so they both kicked it around, and began to call the game ‘Footbag’.
As they found the game very entertaining, they showed their friends, and the trend soon spread. So, John and Mike decided to begin selling hacky sacks, and they were very successful.
Unfortunately, in 1975, Mike died of a heart attack, at the age of 28. However, John continued with the “Hacky Sack” cause and formed the National Hacky Sack Association. He later sold the rights for the Hacky Sack® Footbag to Kransco (operating under the Wham-O label), who also invented the Frisbee, and other fun toys.

Following the invention of Footbag, different varieties of the sport have evolved including “Footbag Net”, where players volley a Hacky Sack over a 5-foot-high net, and “Freestyle Footbag”, where players stand in a circle and do tricks with the Hacky Sack while passing it around the circle.

That pretty much sums that up; but for the next post, we will get into the varieties of hacky sacks.