National Corndog Day was inaugurated in 1992 in Corvallis, Oregon by Brady Sahnow and Henry Otley. The first celebration was informal and involved simply corndogs and basketball. In subsequent years, National Corndog day was expanded to include tater tots and beer and gradually spread to other cities.
The celebration currently is sponsored by Foster Farms, a Livingston, California-based poultry producer, PBR, a US Midwest-based beer company, and Jones Soda. Operations for National Corndog Day currently are governed by a board of directors consisting of select event hosts (or "city captains") based in various cities across the United States.