Why is the Connect Four gaming board 7x6 (as opposed to 8x8, i.e. 2n by 2n)?

Question

The Connect Four board is 7x6, as opposed to 8x8, 16x16, or even 4x4. Is there a specific, mathematical reason for this? The reason I'm asking is because I'm developing a program that will be able to generate Connect $N$ boards, for any given number. At first I assumed that the board size was 2n by 2n, but then I realized it's 7x6. What's going on here?

P.S.: Forgive me if my question tags are incorrect; I'm not quite sure what this falls under.

Answer 1

So it seems that a 7x6 board was chosen because it's "the smallest board which isn't easily shown to be a draw". In addition, it was also speculated that there should probably be an even amount of columns. Therefore, it seems that the dimensions of a Connect $N$ board are a function of $N$. I see two possible functions:

N.B.: I'm not sure if there's a rule about the numbers being consecutive, but I'm assuming that that is the case here.

Times 1.5 function pseudo-code:

column_height = N * 1.5;
If column_height is an even number:
    row_height = N + 1;
Otherwise (if column_height is an odd number):
    column_height = (N * 1.5) + 1; //truncate the decimal portion of (N * 1.5) before adding one
    row_height = column_height + 1;

Add 3 function psuedo-code:

column_height = N + 3
If column_height is an even number:
    row_height = N + 2;
Otherwise (if column_height is an odd number):
    column_height =  N + 4;
    row_height = N + 3;

The first one seems more likely, but since I'm trying to generate perfectly mathematically balanced game boards and there doesn't seem to be any symmetry that I can see, I'm still not sure. Does this seem about right?