Play Along With This Quiz on Classic Lawn Games

Badminton became an official Olympic sport at the 1992 Barcelona games, with men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles. A match consists of best-of-three games, with the first player or pair to reach 21 points winning the game.

America’s first President apparently liked to relax by playing bocce ball at his Mount Vernon home. But the game of bocce ball long predates American history. Stone balls have been found dating back to 9000 BCE, while bocce in its current form may have been played as early as 264 BCE.

In 1965, a group of three fathers used a combination of household games and supplies to invent a new sport to entertain their families. The result was pickleball, named for Joel Pritchard's dog Pickles, who loved to chase after the ball while they played.

Throwing horseshoes became so popular in early America that it was looked down on by the imperial British as a sport for “commoners.” Following the British defeat in the Revolutionary War, the English Duke of Wellington reportedly said "the war was won by pitchers of horse hardware." Still, it wasn't long before England joined in on the fun and established game rules in 1869.

Although the Limbo dance originated in Trinidad and Tobago, its popularization was aided by American songs like Chubby Checker's "Limbo Rock" and many dances shown in mainstream films. Dance pioneer Julia Edwards spread the word so much that she became dubbed the "First Lady of Limbo."

The name of this classic game comes from the Frisbie Baking Company in Connecticut. Nearby university students would toss the empty pie tins, branded with the name "Frisbie," back and forth to each other for fun. The name stuck, and toy company Wham-O eventually released their own flying discs under the name Frisbee.

Although it’s often associated with British aristocracy, croquet evolved from the French game "paille-maille" (or “pall mall" in English), which dates back to the 13th century. It’s a simple outdoor game — using a mallet, players hit their ball through a series of hoops called wickets — that in recent years has been enjoyed by a diverse fan base.

Harry S. Truman built the first horseshoe pit at the White House, but that pit was later removed to make room for a putting green for Dwight D. Eisenhower. When George H.W. Bush arrived at the White House in 1989, he commissioned a new 40-foot horseshoe pit on the South Lawn. He famously demonstrated his skills for a delighted Queen Elizabeth II, who had heard of his love for the game and gifted him a set of silver-plated horseshoes.

Although many cornhole bags now use beans or plastic pellets, the original game was played with cloth sacks filled with corn. Despite evolving materials, the "cornhole" moniker had more staying power than the game's original title, Parlor Quoits.

In Italian, "bocce" simply translates to "balls." Thus, if you're bilingual, the name "bocce ball" may feel a little redundant. It’s believed that during the Punic Wars (264–146 BCE), Roman soldiers played a game resembling our modern version in order to pass the time and relieve stress.