John Stalberger

John Stalberger is the co-inventor of the sport of footbag and the brand name Hacky Sack. He is considered the father of footbag.

Stalberger, a stocky Texan with a vast sports background, was on vacation in 1972 when he met Mike Marshall at a local festival in Oregon City, Oregon. Stalberger, who was nursing an injured knee, became close friends with Mike. Marshall introduced John to a hobby he had learned from a Native American while in the military. Using a bean bag, the two kicked and bumped the object for hours in vain attempts at consecutive rallies. Stalberger found the hobby to be an excellent therapy for his injured knee, and the two became obsessed with their newfound exercise. When either would want to play, he would say, “Hey, let’s go hack the sack!” Thus, the trade name Hacky Sack was born.

Stalberger and Marshall began experimenting with different shapes and sizes for their kicking object. One design was disc-like in shape, made of leather and filled with buttons. Another was made of denim from an old pair of jeans and filled with rocks.

It was not unusual to fill them with rice or seeds, but that led to problems when the footbags got wet. Eventually the two-panel baseball style design was developed. Just as their brainchild was about to break into the U.S. market, Mike Marshall suffered a heart attack in his sleep in 1975 and died at the age of 28. Honoring his friend, John continued their dream of making footbag/Hacky Sack a legitimate sport and hobby.

With the increased encouragement of local merchants, friends and athletes, Stalberger’s new footbag model took on one more change. This time, plastic pellets proved to be more durable and gave the footbag a consistent reaction while in play, again accentuating the natural flow of kicking. With added inspiration, Stalberger continued the quest to make their wish a reality. He found that by stressing the equal use of both sides of the body to control the footbag, and by restricting the contact of the footbag to only the feet and knees, the game could be used as an athletic and physical education training tool. At the same time, he found that a round design for the footbag created better kicking, along with more consistent angle-of-flight characteristics.

Stalberger, continuing to experiment with his sport, in 1978 invented the truly competitive version of the game known as footbag net. With this game, Stalberger had formed a base for which tournaments would grow. John formed his footbag business with Ted Huff and Garwin Bruce, two future Footbag Hall of Fame members and well-known promoters of the sport. The first footbag tournaments were created thanks to their combined efforts. This template would later be added onto by Dan Roddick with Wham-O, and Bruce Guettich and Greg Cortopassi of the World Footbag Association.

In 1979 the U.S. Patent number 4151994 was granted, and Hacky Sack ® became a brand name. In 1983 Wham-O, Inc. bought the North American manufacturing and distributing rights for a reported six-figure sum. John earned the rightful name ‘Mr. Hacky Sack’, which has stuck with him until this day.

Wham-O’s sports/marketing director, Dan ‘Stork’ Roddick was footbag’s first big corporate supporter.

Wham-O’s sports promotion director, Roddick quickly embraced their new Hacky Sack product and began promoting it alongside their Frisbee disc, as the two items shared a similar audience. For more than ten years, Roddick’s annual budget funded hundreds of footbag promotions including regional, national and world competitions, school touring teams, physical education conventions and teacher in-service clinics, fairs and festivals, and television commercials.

Stalberger was also influential in sponsoring and promoting many early footbag stars, most notably a young Kenny Shults, who would go on to be considered the greatest footbag player of all time. John is on many people’s list of greatest inspirations in their footbag careers.

John worked with many promoters and organizers during the 80s and 90s, including Dan Roddick, Bruce Guettich, Greg Cortopassi, Peter Shunny, Randy Nelson, Ted Huff, Garwin Bruce, Kenny Shults, and many more. With his comrades listed above, he helped create the Footbag Hall of Fame which continues today.

To honor his friend, John created the Mike Marshall award, given to people for their excellence in footbag.

John helped organize the 1997 World Footbag Championships in Portland, Oregon, which included one of the first Footbag Hall of Fame ceremonies.

In the 2000s, Stalberger returned to promoting footbag by MCing shows and demos with Red Husted. Johnny’s influence opened many doors to again showcase the best of the sport. In 2005, he and Red ran the Founder’s Cup/Northwest Fest footbag tournament in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon. In 2006, they worked together again with Chris Siebert and the Sole Purpose Footbag Group to run the US Open Footbag Championships. John would be involved with many US Opens in Portland, Vancouver, and Boise, Idaho.

In 2017, John helped run the World Footbag Championships in Portland, Oregon. His influence brought a great deal of sponsorships to the event. He was also the Footbag Hall of Fame Director for many years, and with Big Add Posse member Josh Casey, created the first official Hall of Fame website.

Stalberger has been highlighted in many, many articles, videos, TV shows, documentaries, and other forms of media. He was the original face of footbag and was an extremely talented businessman, promoter, and marketer of the sport.

Today, millions of players throughout the world participate in the sport of footbag, ranging from casual kicking to competitive play. Through hard work and dedication, Mike Marshall and John Stalberger made their dream a reality. Footbag and Hacky Sack would not exist today without these two, and both are cemented as legends in the sport. John Stalberger’s continued dedication to the game he helped create has inspired the thousands who followed him. He is considered a true visionary and innovator, as well as the father of footbag.

John Stalberger