Batter, beer and basketball

In less than two weeks, People across the nation will meet with friends to watch eight hours of basketball while they gobble up hot dogs that have been dipped in batter, fried and then impaled on a stick.

 March 23 will mark the 21st annual National Corndog Day, "the ultimate celebration of America’s love of basketball and meats on sticks," according to corndogday.com.

 For anyone interested in celebrating or learning more about this holiday that continues to gain popularity and expand waistlines in South Dakota and across the nation, the American News has compiled a list of facts, trivia, anecdotes and all of the information a person could ever need to know about National Corndog Day.

 All information is provided by www.corndogday.com unless otherwise specified.

National Corndog Day was created in 1992 by Brady Sahnow and Henry Otley of Corvallis, Ore.

National Corndog Day is always celebrated on the first day of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

In 2008, more than 5,000 National Corndog Day parties were thrown, including one on a research station in Antarctica.

Stuff needed to host a National Corndog Day party: friends, a TV showing the NCAA men's basketball tournament, an oven or deep fryer, corndogs, tater tots, beer and pop.

One common event during National Corndog Day parties is the triple-double challenge. Consume 10 corndogs, 10 beers and 100 tater tots from the start of the first basketball game to the end of the last game that day to complete the challenge.

Matt Varilek, the Democratic Party's challenger to Republican Kristi Noem for South Dakota's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives last year, was criticized for hosting National Corndog Day parties in 2006 and 2008. An attack ad which can be found at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=I0OomdFloKI, was created by the South Dakota Republican Party.