Sports Illustrated – Dance of The Magic Feet (1996)

This article from the long-running Sports Illustrated magazine is an in-depth chat with Kenny Shults.

You can read the whole article here. Below is a preview.

Of the millions of kids who have gathered in millions of circles
to kick around all those little beanbags, virtually none know
about Kenny Shults. They should. Although Shults didn’t invent
the sport of footbag–commonly known by the trademark name Hacky
Sack–he is responsible, more than anyone else, for sparking its
international popularity. Shults is the world’s first and only
Hacky Sack prodigy.

“I’m starting to feel ancient,” he said as he surveyed the
dreadlocks and tie-dyes and body piercings on the newcomers who
had assembled to compete in the 17th annual World Footbag
Championships, held in August in Montreal. “Footbag years, you
know, are like dog years.”

Though Shults is all of 30 in human years, his hair–cut Wall
Street conservative–is starting to thin, and his wire-framed
eyeglasses are distinctly unhip. Also, he lacks the cocksure
demeanor of a dominant athlete. Shults is tall and lanky, 6’1″
and 165 pounds, and he moves about with the uncertainty of an
adolescent who has just experienced a growth spurt. He tucks his
T-shirt into his shorts. He is polite almost to a fault. And
because of his job as the marketing director of a software
company in Clackamas, Ore., just outside his hometown of
Portland, he had little time to practice for the championships.

Here is a clip of Kenny in action.