|
News
For
an index of articles on the
Phi
Chapter,
click
here.
|
April 21, 2006
Tang
allows even Tyng Cup losers to taste victory
By Jack
Mirkinsons
Contributing Reporter
Clad
only in a faded T-shirt and green boxers, Delta Kappa Epsilon President
Peter Pacelli '07 looks tired sitting on a couch in his fraternity
house. He lets long pauses slip between questions and answers. But when
it comes to Tang, the drinking game DKE has sponsored for decades,
Pacelli's enthusiasm shines through.
"This competition is an integral part of Yale's social scene,"
he says. "It's an exciting time."
Pacelli and the other members of the storied fraternity have been
planning Tang for months, and it is "one of the only things we plan
all semester," DKE member Alex Hetherington '06 said. This Sunday,
Yale's oldest and biggest drinking game will go forth as it does every
year. Now DKE's biggest party of the year, the competition has come a
long way since its origins as a "Gentlemen's drinking
engagement" decades ago.
A staple of every spring reading week, Tang is immensely popular with
the student body. Held in DKE's backyard, it always draws a large crowd.
When asked to give an estimate of the body count each year, Pacelli
pauses.
"Hey Sprole!" he shouts. "How many people usually
come?"
"'Bout a thousand," Frank Sprole '07 answers from another
room.
"About 1,000," Pacelli says, turning back. "We've got a
big backyard."
The event's name is a play on the Tyng Cup, which is awarded every year
to the college that wins the intramural competition. The game itself was
born out of trying times for Silliman and Timothy Dwight colleges,
Tang's only original participants. Year after year, they could be
counted on to finish at the bottom of the Tyng Cup standings. In
response, they created a game at which they might excel.
Tang quickly gained a following and a reputation, and soon a tradition
was born. Hetherington is continuing a legacy himself: His father was a
Tang competitor in 1964.
Although the competition itself has moved off campus, the rules have
remained unchanged throughout Tang's history. It is essentially a relay
race. Team members, fielded from every college, line up in front of two
eight-ounce glasses of beer each. After the start is declared, they go
down the line, chugging one glass down as quick as they can. Once it's
the captain's turn, he downs both glasses and sends the race back down
the line. Whoever finishes first gets a golden keg of beer. But the
rules are rigid and elaborate. This year, they go on for almost two
pages -- "Minor wets: small amount of beer on face, neck or chest
(or a light streamer) -- 0.5 second penalty."
In 1958, the News dubbed Tang "A Gentlemen's Drinking
Engagement," listing it among "the unforgettable and
inalienable traditions which have glorified the Yale campus."
Peter Kennard '68, who was in TD, said he remembered other forms of
training that went on.
"The training did you in," he said. "It left you pretty
wiped out every night from drinking a ton of beer."
Kennard said students had to compete to even get on the team, and then
they would practice heavily at least a week before the event in the TD
basement. And while Tang attracted a huge following in the two
participating colleges, Kennard said its popularity never extended west
of College Street.
Those were glory years for TD. Walt Zorkers '68 said the team won Tang
every year he was at Yale, including the two years he led the team to
victory. As for the source of his success, Zorkers said it was simply a
matter of skill.
"I'd say faster drinking technique," he said. "This sport
does not require as much dedication as other sports. It's less
dedication and more technique."
Zorkers said that on average, his players could gulp a glass down in one
second.
But the good times had to end sooner or later, and in a year no one
seems to quite remember, Tang was banished from the residential
colleges. Pacelli speculated that it was because of a crackdown on
drinking by the administration. McCarthy said an alum from the Class of
1986 told him Tang was kicked off campus because Connecticut raised the
drinking age from 18 to 21 in 1983, leaving the hands of residential
college deans tied.
In any case, DKE took up the event and expanded it. Now, all residential
colleges field Tang teams to duke it out. They gather in DKE's backyard,
a band plays and the relay starts.
Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg said that because the
fraternity is off campus, the administration has no oversight of its
parties.
One byproduct of the evolution of both the competition and the
University has been the addition of women's teams to the contest. Tang
is now split by gender, and among the colleges, Calhoun has consistently
fielded a winning team -- so much so that there is a Facebook group
dedicated to their prowess. Ashley Ponce '08 said there is a
word-of-mouth recruiting process that goes on every year to continue the
legacy.
"It's not really publicized," she said. "Older girls ask
around and people find out. Freshmen have come up to us asking to be on
it, and we say we'll put them on the list."
Mindful of last year's noise complaint, Pacelli said the frat has made
efforts this year to smooth things over with DKE neighbors, even
inviting them to participate.
While its status as a "gentlemen's" drinking game is long
gone, DKE members said Tang has only become better.
Kevin McCarthy '08, the fraternity's alumni liaison, said that among the
graduates he has heard from, "the general feeling is that it's the
last great college memory for these guys."
Pacelli said he is confident that this year's event will exceed
expectations. But he said he was nervous about a few things.
"I'm just a little worried about the performance of Silliman
College," he said, suggesting that even the most stable traditions
have a way of leaving their founders in the dust.
|