It began, like many traditions at Boston College, with the ancient Greeks … or so say many legends about the immensely popular drinking game Beirut, a game now banned on campus. Try arguing that with your Resident Assistant or Hall Director next time you are caught playing the game.
In Kattabos, the moniker for a game played by the ancient Greeks, two players separated themselves with a table, in the middle of which stood a large stand topped by a bronze disk almost 12 feet off the ground.
Player one would chug his glass of wine and throw the remaining residue up towards the disk, the object being to knock the disk down. The first one to knock it down won, but if both players missed, they would refill their wine, repeat the chugging, and try the process again.
As the game became more popular, tables were constructed and marketed for all the Greeks to enjoy. Sound familiar?
Though the game has evolved quite a bit since the ancient Greeks, its competitive spirit still lingers.
Legend suggests that Beirut became popular in America on college campuses in the late ’50s or early ’60s, when co-educational life came into existence. Males and females, allowed to mingle and party together without chaperones for the first time, discovered the fun of competitive drinking games.
Interestingly enough, this development coincided with the invention of plastic cups, making drinking games like Beirut easier to play, particularly as it eliminated broken glasses and ceramic cups.
Others suggest that the U.S./Beirut conflict in the early to mid-’80s was responsible for the game’s popularity, a game in which lobbing ping pong balls into opponent cups seemed strikingly familiar to bombs dropping from the sky in the Lebanese town.
Beirut most likely derives its roots from another game – beer pong. The game differs in its use of a ping pong table and racket. Perhaps students found it easier just to pick up a ball and throw it in a cup, and the fun of Beirut spread from campus to campus, as new versions of the game cropping up as its popularity grew.
Spring Break
