The earliest known year when the corn dog was first prepared in the US was on 1937. During a high school baseball game in Adel, Iowa, ballpark vendors ran out of hot dog buns for their hot dogs. Roger Newman, a local tavern owner who runs one of the vendors, took the remaining hot dogs in order to make corn dogs without sticks. He breaded each hot dog in a cornmeal batter that he had prepared for an upcoming fish fry, and returned to the ballpark with these corn dogs. Even though there were not any sticks for any of the corn dogs, patrons held the corn dogs with a wide variety of different methods. Some patrons held the corn dogs with wax paper, paper cones, and even pocket knives.