The drinking game of beer pong is an emblem of social collegiate life. However, options may be limited to play the drinking game at bars in Uptown, unless you or someone you know owns a beer pong table.
Some bars in Loyola’s vicinity previously held beer pong tournaments, but stopped due to various reasons including loss of popularity and police raids during last year. Bars such as Rocco’s Tavern and Frat House are the only bars near Loyola’s campus which offer beer pong tables along with pingpong balls.
Arthur La Coume, general manager at Rocco’s Tavern, says beer pong tournaments were held, but they never caught on. “We tried doing some earlier in (2010), like last semester, but it just never really caught on – if you remember all the cops all around giving tickets.”
La Coume says that if a patron wants to play beer pong at Rocco’s and they are 21 years-old, “There’s a table over there,” but he says he’s not buying pingpong balls anymore because they were constantly being lost.
“Most of the kids bring their own,” said La Coume. Beer pong is most popular on Wednesday nights during the penny pitcher special from 9 p.m. to midnight.
The Frat House used to hold beer pong nights on Tuesdays but stopped right after Christmas. Thursday nights tend to have the most patrons playing beer pong at the bar, according to a general manager who asked to remain anonymous. The manager said, “People can come in and ask to play beer pong,” but said that few people actually come in to play.
Some who play beer pong at home own the proper table to play the drinking game. “I play it, I suppose, but I don’t take it seriously,” said Xavier Mántica, mass communication senior.
Mántica, who lives off campus, said his roommate bought a used and “official” beer pong table last summer. “He saw it as something fun we could have in the house,” said Mántica.
Mántica said he plays some weekends when friends come over to the house. “The table folds and has the exact measurements for a beer pong table.”
He added that he and his roommates use house rules during beer pong sessions. “You can’t hover your elbow over the table,” he said. “This is to make sure that a person is not too close to the table.”
Mántica said that his roommate, “Likes to jump as he throws (the pingpong ball), We usually play with six or ten cups. If there are less people we play with ten cups but if there are more, we play with six.”
Kenneth Shames, business management and marketing sophomore says he plays beer pong once or twice a month at friends’ houses or the Frat House. Shames said his friends either own a real beer pong table or a pingpong table. “All you really need to play is a couple of cups and balls,” said Shames.
He said that he follows certain beer pong rules that include throwing the ball with your back to the table or facing the table, along with varying ways in setting up the cups on the table. Shames favorite shooting technique is called “the arc.” He said, “It’s like if you’re playing basketball, you’re just trying to score a ball into a cup of beer.”
Other frequented bars like The Boot, Bruno’s Tavern and T J Quill’s on Maple St. do not have enough space to accommodate beer pong tables but have billiards with some
including darts and shuffleboard.
Santiago Caicedo can be reached at [email protected]
