Beirut
History
Beirut also commonly known as 'Beer Pong' is
the most popular drinking game among college students today. Roughly twenty
years ago the game emerged into society and caught on like wild fire. Beirut
evolved as a "paddle-less" version of Beer Pong, a similar game that used
paddles to propel the ping pong instead of throwing the ping pong by hand.
According to Wikipedia there are two
stories of where Beirut originated from. The first story explains that the game
was popularized in 1983 after a student from Lehigh University observed a game
at Bucknell University. The other story goes on to say that the game was
developed in 1986. This is when a fraternity at Lehigh University created the
game after all ping pong paddles were broken for regular Beer Pong. True Beirut
.com supports the first story due to extent research in this area and finding
many "old timers" who have claimed to play the game before 1986.
Anyhow, the reason the game is called Beirut instead
of 'Beer Pong' is because of an interesting history fact. Since the name
Beer Pong had already been assigned to the game with paddles, a name for the
game without paddles was in need. What ended up coming to these student's mind
oddly enough is the 70's. To be exact they saw throwing the ping pong balls into
the opposite cups symbolizing the "bombings" from East Beirut to West Beirut
while they were at war in the 70's (In Lebanon)
The game of Beirut spread very fast across the nation picking
up a bunch of different variations of the game as it went. Although the game is
called Beirut, it is often referred to as Beer Pong in many areas. It has been
agreed among most people that calling the game Beirut or Beer Pong is acceptable
and can be used interchangeably when referring to the game. Tendencies show that
more people from the north refer to it as Beirut and more people from the south
refer to it either as Beirut or Beer Pong.
