Footbag as a modern sport came to be in 1972, when John Stalberger met Mike Marshall. Marshall had been kicking a hand-made bean bag around. Stalberger had a knee surgery and was looking for something to help him recover. He took to the game as soon as he saw the bag. They called it 'Hack the Sack'. They began to promote the game to the general public. They designed a product and called it 'Hacky Sack'. Mike Marshall died of a heart attack in 1975. John kept the promotion up and started the National Hacky Sack Association. He eventually sold the rights of the 'Hacky Sack' to Wham-O.

Variations of the Game

Modern Footbag has many variations. People compete at many different forms of the sport. Footbag Net is a game that is played over a Badminton net. The footbag is not allowed to touch anywhere above the knee. If a hit is not returned¹, you lose the point.

Free Style is another game that is played. It involves simply kicking the bag around, perhaps in a circle. It is the most popular form of the game. There are competitions on free style where players do a routine of tricks to music similar to figure skating. Some tricks include the 'around the world', 'mirage', 'blur', and the 'paradox torque'. 'Consecutive' is the game of hitting the footbag as many times as possible before messing up, running out of time, getting tired, or just plain starving to death. 63,326 total kicks is the current world consecutive record.

A few other minor games can be played although they are not competitive. In 'pelt', you kick the bag a set number of times before catching and throwing it to another player. 'H-A-C-K' is similar to 'horse' in basketball. A person does a trick, or series of kicks that another person must also do. Failure to do so will give you a letter. In 'add on', people stand in a circle, the first person does a kick, say an inside. The next person does an inside and adds another, and the game continues in this way.