6 Things You Didn't Know About Beer Pong

6 Things You Didn't Know About Beer Pong

March 29, 2016

The game was invented at Dartmouth College.

Rumor has it (although, I'm sure you've heard a lot of rumors) that the game was discovered by college students at Dartmouth. Students used to gather in basements to compete in ping pong tournaments. One fateful day, someone accidentally hit a ball into a cup full of beer–thus creating beer pong. Before you start telling me I'm wrong, check out Crispus Knight's memoir, Three for Ship: A Swan Song to Dartmouth Beer Pong.

The name changed from "Beer Pong" to "Beirut" in the 80's.

Some people think the game of Beirut refers to playing beer pong with paddles, while others think it's something else, but those people are wrong. For those of you who weren't born yet, there was a major bombing of the Beirut International Airport in 1983 that killed 241 Americans. It was the largest day of Marine casualties since the Battle of Iwo Jima. America was in an uproar and college students up and down the east coast were renaming the game of beer pong Beirut as an homage to the fallen soldiers. Why Beirut? Because if you played, you got bombed. 

There are over 40 different kinds of re-racks.

And there is no right name for them. You may call a 3-cup rack a stop-light, traffic light, or maybe just a line. A sideways 3-cup can be called a play button, sideways triangle, or a fetus. Whatever it is, you're not really wrong, unless there is a list of house re-racks on the wall. 

Original versions of the game used broomsticks in place of nets. 

Nets in the center of ping pong tables were too high, but were necessary for early gameplay, so students replaced the nets with broomsticks. Now, nets are making a comeback in a different way

If your good enough, you could win $50,000 playing pong. 

In 2001, Billy Gaines founded BPONG™, and the World Series of Beer Pong. There are annual beer pong tournaments hosted in Las Vegas where the winner gets the ultimate $50,000 prize.

Water pong can be more dangerous than regular pong.

Due to overdose, Dartmouth banned water pong in 2007. Drinking too much water can flood your brain, causing you to drown from the inside. Although, this doesn't mean that beer pong cannot be dangerous. Drink responsibly.

Header Image Credit: BPONG