Beer Pong - Students drawn by game's challenge, but some colleges, fearing binge drinking, want it tabled
MADISON -- The pingpong table stood mightily on the front
lawn of a fraternity house near the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
one side painted with the red and white stripes of the
American flag, the other with the Soviet Union hammer
and sickle.
Ten plastic cups filled with beer were perched on each
end. Hunched over the cups were pairs of students, brows
furrowed, eyes aglow.
The most popular drinking game on campus was getting
under way. The crowd of spectators grew silent.
"I'm going to make it," proclaimed one of the
players, in a Bucky T-shirt and wraparound sunglasses,
as she thrust one arm forward, unleashing a pingpong ball
from her hand.
Beer pong -- in which players make their opponents drink
by sinking a pingpong ball in one of their cups -- has
been around for more than a decade. But in the last couple
of years, it has reached unprecedented popularity -- to
the chagrin of college administrators who fear the game
fuels binge drinking.
Students say that it's rare to attend a party where the
game is not being played. Stroll the neighborhoods around
UW-Madison, and you'll find lawns and driveways strewn
with beer pong tables. There's a distinct beer pong culture,
complete with tournaments, posters and custom-made tables.
"It has exploded," said Nick, a UW-Madison
junior, as he stood over a table that had taken him weeks
to make, a pingpong ball in one hand, a beer in the other.
(Like other underage drinkers quoted in this story, he
asked that his last name be withheld.) "We play from
dusk to dawn."
Drinking games are not new to college campuses.
For years, students have taken part in quarters, a game
in which a player can make others drink by bouncing a
quarter into a cup, and a card game with a distinct hierarchy,
in which the person at the bottom, known as an expletive,
can be ordered to drink.
Once popular was a game in which students would watch
reruns of "The Bob Newhart Show." Every time
a character would say "Hi, Bob," everyone would
have to drink.
Also common have been a variety of games requiring players
to consume alcohol out of the long, gangly tubes of beer
bongs.
What distinguishes beer pong from these drinking game
staples is how competitive it is. It's not just a vehicle
for getting drunk; it requires skill.
Or so beer pong enthusiasts would have you believe.
"It's like a sport that involves alcohol,"
said Patrick, a junior at UW-Milwaukee, who said he had
worked hard to perfect the arc of his pingpong tosses
and his bounce shot.
Patrick, who began dabbling in the game last year, is
now a self-proclaimed addict.
He and his four roommates engage in weekly beer pong
tournaments against their next-door neighbors. The winner
gets a plastic gold belt like those found in World Wrestling
Entertainment matches that says "World Champion."
Mike, a junior at UW-Madison who also enjoys beer pong
tournaments with friends, has a poster tacked up above
his dining room table in honor of the game.
The poster, a birthday gift from his sister, shows a
sideways shot of 10 plastic cups with the caption: "Champions
are made one cup at a time."
In January, a World Series of Beer Pong took place in
Nevada -- the first world series of its kind.
"Guys are so competitive, so they can't help but
get sucked into the competition," said Alex, a Marquette
freshman.
When they don't have pingpong tables, players will make
their own, often taking the time to apply lacquer (to
avoid warping) or paint images. A Marquette student painted
his table to look like the university's basketball court.
The fraternity that painted the flags of the U.S. and
former Soviet Union on its pingpong table owns several
other tables, each painted with different national flags.
Others remove doors from their hinges. "It's a big
problem," said Mike, the UW-Madison junior, who works
maintenance in his apartment building to help pay the
bills. "They have a hard time putting the doors back
on. They're really sticky from beer."
Dangers of drinking games
Researchers who study drinking games say they can cause
serious problems, contributing to binge drinking and the
negative consequences, such as drunken driving, that go
along with it. One study of college students found that
nearly half the male respondents who played drinking games
said they did so to facilitate romantic interactions and
sexual encounters.
"Drinking games are a structured way to drink heavily,"
said Brian Borsari, a researcher at Brown University who
has studied drinking games and who wrote a paper summarizing
studies on the subject. "One motivation is to get
people drunk. There is a link between alcohol use and
sexual assault."
A national association of fraternities and sororities
recently strengthened its risk management policy prohibiting
drinking games, citing beer pong as a specific activity
that should not be tolerated. Many colleges now include
warnings as part of their freshmen orientations.
"We're trying to emphasize, especially to freshmen,
the dangers of drinking games," said Paul Dupont,
a psychologist at UW-Milwaukee's student health center,
who leads the university's Task Force on Alcohol and Alcohol-Related
Issues.
Beer pong advocates interviewed for this story conceded
that while it is often not the intention, the game can
cause them to get severely intoxicated. Not only must
they drink the beer contained in a cup in which the ball
lands, losers also are required to, at the end of the
game, finish the beer remaining in the cups of the winners.
"Once you drink all that beer, you pretty much are
hammered," said Patrick, the UW-Milwaukee junior.
Alex, the freshman at Marquette, is among the female
students who dislike beer pong for reasons of hygiene.
She is convinced the pingpong balls are covered with germs
and would prefer that they not make it into her beer.
And although Mike, of UW-Madison, enjoys playing the
game when he's hanging out with friends, he has become
frustrated by how much it dominates parties.
"It's really anti-social," he said. "You
go to a party, and no one is talking. They're just sitting
around watching the game."
