Awww. Sad.

A still from the video I did before the tournament.

Cornhole champ Chu Farfsing died on Sunday.

I met Chu when I covered the National Cornhole Tournament for sports two years ago, and he and I became fast-friends. He'd been knocked out the tournament (his buddies said because he was hung-over, though Chu denied this vehemently saying, 'Sometimes you throw good bags, sometimes you don't. Drinkin' ain't got nothing to do with it' so he and I sat and traded commentary on the other players.

He make it interesting by chiding the guys still in the tournament for demanding everyone be quiet while they played cornhole. "It isn't quiet in bars when we play! This ain't tennis!" he said.

I thought he might actually get us ejected from the tournament, which I was kind of hoping for. (Getting removed from the tournament with a cornhole rebel rouser would have made an excellent addition to my story.) The stories I wrote about the tournament are no longer available online unfortunately, but Chu was so wonderfully quotable and such a great character that I quoted him in both the preview and the post tournament story.

It's funny the things you remember about people.

He and I went to dinner last summer and traded stories over margaritas and chips and salsa. He told me the story of how he started going by Chu instead of Chuck in elementary school and how every Sunday after church he visited his mother's grave. I hope they're able to bury him near her.

Anyway, I hate to hear he's died. Chu was funny, real laid-back and a very sweet, kind person. Not only that, he threw good bags.

I'm sorry I never got a "next time" to make good on my offer to buy his dinner.