National Corndog Day is a celebration concerning basketball, the corn dog (A corn dog is usually a hot dog sausage coated in a thick layer of cornmeal batter), Tater Tots, and American beer that occurs in March of every year on the first Saturday of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.
National Corndog Day was inaugurated in 1992 in Corvallis, Oregon by Brady Sahnow and Henry Otley. The first celebration was informal and involved only corndogs and basketball. In subsequent years, National Corndog day was expanded to include tater tots and beer and gradually spread to other cities. The celebration currently is sponsored by Foster Farms, a Livingston, California-based poultry producer, PBR, a US Midwest-based beer company, and Jones Soda. Operations for National Corndog Day currently are governed by a board of directors consisting of event hosts (or "city captains") based in various cities in the United States.
By 2007, parties celebrating National Corndog Day occurred at 113 locations in more than 30 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Australia. In 2008 participation increased to nearly 5, 000 parties[1] on five continents, including one at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. In 2009 participation fell back to the trend line from the 2008 peak, with nearly 400 on March 21, 2009.[2] National Corndog Day 2009 took place on Saturday, March 21st, 2009.[3] That same year, musical artist and contest winner, Ben Brennan, wrote and performed the National Corndog Day theme song. [4]
On March 16, 2012, Oregon Governor John A. Kitzhaber issued a Proclamation declaring March 17, 2012 to be National Corndog Day.[5]