GREENVILLE, Ohio – They arrived in droves from all across Ohio, many as young as 7 and some into their 90s. All with the goal of being named the best corn husker in the state.

This year’s Ohio State Cornhusking Competition was held at Magie Wonder Acres Farm in Greenville. The event was hosted at the farm of David and Kathy Magie, president and club secretary respectively of the Ohio Corn Huskers Association.

“There’s certain bragging rights at the state level, but the real bragging rights come at being tops in the Men’s Open and Women’s Open divisions,” David Magie said.

In 2019, Kathy placed second in the Senior Women’s class at the National Cornhusking Tournament in Nebraska, alongside other Ohio representatives. Her husband, David, has won state and national titles in years past.

Kathy’s cousin, Nita Burnside, has been competing at this event for 50 straight years.

“It never gets old to me,” Burnside said. “I do this each year and I love doing it.”

One of the youngest competitors at the Greenville event was 14-year-old Hunter Gigandet.

“This is my fourth year of competing and it’s a lot of fun,” said Gigandet, who finished first in the 14-and-under class this year. “I’ve advanced to nationals two of those years.”

Before farming became mechanized, picking corn by hand and pitching ears into a horse-drawn wagon was how harvesting was done. In the late 19th century, local contests were held to determine the best corn picker in the community. By the 1930s, hand corn husking became one of the fastest-growing sports in America, drawing over 100,000 spectators at national contests. The 1938 Illinois competition, for instance, drew a crowd of 85,000.

Today’s events pale in comparison. Contemporary cornhusking contests are considered a success if the combined total of competitors and spectators tops the century mark. While cornhusking events of the past were bona fide sporting events, today’s huskers are just having fun and making sure the work of their predecessors is not forgotten.

To this day, the National Cornhusking Association sponsors a contest each fall to determine who is the best in the nation. That national event will be held in Marshall, Mo., this fall.

“Husking corn by hand is a heritage thing,” said Daniel Mullins, from Holmes County in northeast Ohio. Mullins, 83, attended the event in Greenville but only as a spectator.

“Most of the Amish in Holmes County where I live still harvest corn by hand. I remember my dad harvesting corn by hand into the 1940s before mechanization became widespread,” Mullins said. “This method was labor-intensive but produced ears nearly free of shucks, which made them ideal for air-drying in cribs.”

There are nine states that are members of the National Cornhusking Association: Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Each state holds competitions in 10 age classes. The top three placers in each class are eligible to compete in the national cornhusking contest.

Class breakouts (with time allotted) include: Golden Agers Women and Golden Agers Men (each 75 and older, 10 minutes), Senior Men 50 and over (20 minutes), Senior Women 50 and over (10 minutes), Men’s Open (30 minutes), Women’s Open (20 minutes), Youth Girls and Youth Boys (14 and under, each 10 minutes), Youth Girls and Youth Boys (15 to 20, each 10 minutes), Women’s and Men’s (21 to 49, each 20 minutes) and Novice (all ages, 10 minutes).

The corn is arranged in “lands” or channels, so each husker has their own area.

As a picker makes his or her own way down a row, that competitor must remove the ear from the stalk and remove the corn cleanly from the husk. A horse- or tractor-drawn wagon with a tall “bang board” catches the corn as it is tossed from the row.

“It’s called a bang board because you can hear the sound of the corn hitting it,” Burnside said. “That sound confirms that the ear made it into the wagon.”

Once the time has expired, the corn is brought back from the field to be weighed. A sample of the harvested corn is pulled from the pile and any husks left on the ears of corn are removed and weighed. The weight of the remaining husks is then deducted from the original weight.

If the ear of corn doesn’t make it into the wagon, the husker can retrieve it and toss it into the wagon, but such a miss can cost the competitor valuable seconds.

This hands-only event didn’t happen in many states from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s. Ohio revitalized the event in 1973 at Carriage Hill Farm north of Dayton. Nita’s father, Bill Farmer, is credited with rejuvenating the Ohio corn husking event.