The history of "The Beans" is inexorably tied to the Beanie Bowlers League, and its founders who worked in the Dayton GM plants.  In GM, a tradition sprang up in which the originators of the worst designs were awarded a "Pig" trophy by their peers.  When Beanie Bowlers was founded, the originators felt that a similar trophy for the most unworthy bowler was needed.  As it happened, Charles Forstoff had won a trophy when he was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, and he offered the trophy to the league.  Charles' trophy had a bowling pin on one side and a bowler on the other.  Only the bowling pin and platform on which it is mounted remain from the original trophy. The bowler was removed from the trophy, and replaced with a can of beans, in honor of the smelliest bowler of the week.  At first, the names of the winners were inscribed on the bowling pin of the trophy, but as time went on, more room was needed for names, so Fred Klim added the pedestal.  When all four sides of the pedestal were full, Bill Harding added hooks for cards to the front.  One card lasts a season, and there is room for a number of cards.

The Beanie Bowlers league is unique.  Unlike traditional leagues which form teams for a season, Beanie Bowlers form new teams from the bowlers who show up each week.  A computer program creates the teams so that the team averages are within 4 or 5 pins.  The evenly matched teams make the competition keen and ribbing jovial.  Prize money is awarded at the end of each day’s bowling, and with great fanfare, the bowler with the lowest gross score, the winner of “The Beans,” is announced.  Once a bowler has won "The Beans" twice in a season he is exempt from further humiliation for the remainder of the season.  "The Beans" must be prominently displayed in the "winners" home for a week!  This trophy has been taken home over six hundred times since the league's founding in 1981!