The game evolved from the original�beer pong played with paddles�which is generally regarded to have had its origins within the fraternities of�Dartmouth College�in the 1950s and 1960s, where it has since become part of the social culture of the campus. The original version resembled an actual�ping pong�game with a net and one or more cups of beer on each side of the table.�Eventually, a version without paddles was created and the names Beer Pong�and�Beirut�were adopted in some areas of the United States sometime in the 1980s.
Bucknell University's student-run newspaper,�The Bucknellian, claims�Delta Upsilon�fraternity members at Bucknell created "Throw Pong", a game very similar to beer pong, during the 1970s.�"Throw Pong" was then brought to�Lehigh University�by fraternity brothers who visited Bucknell and this led to the creation of the version of beer pong that is played today.
In some places,�Beer Pong�refers to the version of the game with paddles, and�Beirut�to the version without. However, according to a�CollegeHumor�survey,�beer pong�is the more common term than�Beirut�for the paddle-less game.
The origin of the name "Beirut" is disputed. A 2004 op-ed article in the�Daily Princetonian,�the student newspaper at�Princeton University, suggested that the name was possibly coined at Bucknell or Lehigh University around the time of the�Lebanese Civil War.�Beirut, the capital of�Lebanon, was the scene of much fighting during the war.
Prepare yourself to get drunk!
