Beer Pong vs. Beirut: Same Game, Different Name (and Why)
Beer pong and Beirut are the same game: throw a ping pong ball into the other team’s cups. “Beirut” is mostly a Northeast and New England name. “Beer pong” is what the rest of the country calls it. The one real exception is Dartmouth, where “pong” means the original game played with paddles, and the throwing game is the one they call Beirut.
We’ve watched this argument derail more parties than the elbow rule. Here’s the short version, so you can win it.
The quick answer
| Name | What it means | Where you’ll hear it |
|---|---|---|
| Beer pong | The throwing game: 10 cups, two teams, no paddles | Most of the US, and anywhere online |
| Beirut (or “ruit”) | The same throwing game | The Northeast, especially Pennsylvania and New England colleges |
| Pong (Dartmouth) | The original game, hit with paddles over a net | Dartmouth and a few Ivy and New England schools |
Where “pong” came from: paddles
The game started as actual ping pong. Most histories trace it to Dartmouth fraternities in the 1950s, where players used paddles and a net and hit the ball toward cups of beer on the other side. Dartmouth still plays it that way, with handle-free paddles and its own cup setups, and Dartmouth students will tell you that’s the real “pong.”
Where “Beirut” came from: throwing
Sometime around the early 1980s, students in Pennsylvania ditched the paddles and started throwing the ball. Bucknell and Lehigh both claim it. Bucknell says its Delta Upsilon brothers were playing “throw pong” first. Lehigh’s Theta Delta Chi says it named the game.
The name lines up with the news of the time: the Lebanese Civil War, and the 1983 bombing that killed US Marines in Beirut. A former Lehigh Theta Delta Chi president told the Dartmouth Independent in 2004 that the name was meant to reflect respect for the US losses there. Other accounts say students compared the ball going back and forth to talk at the time about US strikes on the city. Either way, the name stuck in the Northeast.
Why most people say “beer pong”
- It spread past the Northeast. Once the throwing game went national, nobody in Ohio or California had a reason to call it Beirut.
- It’s what tournaments call it. The World Series of Beer Pong put “beer pong” on the biggest stage in the sport.
- It’s what the name says. Beer, and a ping pong ball. No history lesson needed.
- Some people just don’t like the other name. Given where it came from, a few campuses have pushed to retire “Beirut,” including a 2015 column in Lehigh’s own student paper.
So which one is right?
Call it what your house calls it. That’s rule #1. The house makes the rules, and that includes the name. Around here we call it beer pong, because that’s what everybody knows and it’s what the rules say on the sign.
The rules don’t change with the name: 10 cups, re-racks, bounce shots, redemption. It’s all in our rules of beer pong, and you can build and print your own in the house rules builder.
FAQ
Is Beirut the same as beer pong?
Yes. Both names mean the throwing game with 10 cups per side. The only exception is at Dartmouth, where “pong” means the paddle game.
Why is it called Beirut?
The name started at Pennsylvania colleges (Lehigh or Bucknell) in the early 1980s, during the Lebanese Civil War. Accounts differ on exactly why, but the name came from the news at the time.
Where do people call beer pong Beirut?
Mostly in the Northeast: Pennsylvania, New England and New York colleges. Most of the rest of the country says beer pong.
Who invented beer pong?
The paddle version is traced to Dartmouth in the 1950s. The throwing version most people play started at Bucknell or Lehigh around the early 1980s.
More beer pong terms, from island to Bermuda triangle: see our beer pong glossary.
Sources: The Dartmouth (2019), The Daily Princetonian (2004), The Brown and White (2015).