I always found it funny that European students at my university were shocked that we really did play beer pong with red solo cups in the States. Some of them even took a cup home as a souvenir.

I once, in Ireland, threw a teen movie themed party. The red cups were key to it. I had to order them on eBay but they were weren't real Solo cups, just cardboard. They still went down a treat! Eventually somebody capitalised on the novelty and started importing them.

My experience with the Irish from the early 00's, is that they thought those red party cups are the most horrible thing ever, and they thought it funny that we use them. If the people I met ever used them, it was with irony. In the late 90's German business guys thought that Breath Savers were just like phenolic cakes from urinals and thought it was hilarious to feed them to their American coworkers. I get the same vibe from both situations.

In the UK I saw red Solo cups for sale labeled "Red American party cups"

Proper beer pong cups should be the smaller translucent Solo cups. They offer a smaller target and a better view of the carnage with violent dunks or pass-though cup splits. (My co-ed house had a very dynamic set of rules for Beer Pong. Ultra-low net, super fast serves, twitch reflexes, hyper environmental play, thrown paddles. You haven't played real Beer Pong until you've played our house rules from the late 80's.)

I come from Canada, and I was shocked

That's odd, because we've had them for quite some time (and played beer pong with them). </Ontarian>

Growing up in Alberta, the Red Solo Cup has also been a staple of every house party I've ever been to.

McMaster university. Never saw beer pong. Or the ubiquity of the solo cup (sure there are red cups in Canada, but in the us they are everywhere)

Red Solo cups are too expensive to play pong with. Pong, (at least played properly, none of this ball tossing nonsense), is very cup-intensive. Some of the more interesting variations require upwards of 100 cups to lay out. And you don't tend to reuse cups, unless you are really desperate.

$152 https://www.amazon.com/SLOP16RLRCT-Solo-Plastic-Party-Cold/d...

$25 https://www.amazon.com/oz-Plastic-Cups-Bulk-Packs/dp/B0098MR...

Costco is your friend. Also, you can put Solo cups in the dishwasher to extend their use a few times.

http://www.costco.com/Solo-Party-Plastic-Cold-Drink-Cups-16o...

Personally I'm more interested in the people with the green Solo cups :-)

On a more serious note, this is a remarkably good cup for its volume. We used to "stock" them at Blekko for people who were getting water or needed a drinking cup. One of my hats there was to keep the larder full and I ordered some alternate cups (less expensive) one time and quickly realized they didn't hold up well when full and were too easily squeezed leading to potential crack/leak failures. Clearly the guy had put a lot of thought into something which, on the outside, seemed fairly simple.

Four years ago Solo was purchased by Dart Container for $1 billion. Dart is South of me in the small town of Mason, Michigan and they keep a very low profile locally.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturin...

From beer pong with close friends in my early 20s, to house parties with random folks in my teen years.

All the way to now, in my late 20s, those close knit house parties becoming much more close knit around a game of beer pong and good company.

I owe it all to the red solo cup.

Thanks, Red Solo inventor. For everything. you've given a shy boy a lot to be thankful for over the years.

My friends and I will mourn this loss the only way we know how, with beer pong, over new years.

Oddly enough, the subject of a country music song: https://youtu.be/BKZqGJONH68

Was in the article, but is indeed a superb tune.

The music video is embedded into the article itself.

Real men of genius…

Mr. Red Solo Cup In-VENT-or

Today we salute you…

For non Americans and young people, this reference is to the Real Men of Genius series of (originally radio) commercials for Budweiser (specifically Bud Light). They humorously mockingly "saluted" eccentric men and men with eccentric traits and took the format of the parent comment ending in a suggestion to "crack open a Bud Light." I could -totally- see them doing a "Mr. Red Solo Cup Inventor" one. Does this exist?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Men_of_Genius

https://youtu.be/lsC3ni7A88M (Examples)

https://youtu.be/OdGj-FVxOcs (my personal fav)

The voice of those commercials, Dave Bickler, was previously best known for his vocals on "Eye of the Tiger"

Yes, the voice of the lead singer though, not the narrator.

The Hulseman's live close to where I grew up and I went to school with his kids. Super nice family.

Can any old-timers here comment on whether or not beer pong pre-dated this cup, and if so, what were the prior cups of choice?

In my part of the world, I don't recall beer pong being a thing before the 80s. My prime beer pong years were spent playing "quarters": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarters_(game). We used shot glasses for that (hard to bounce a quarter into a Solo cup).

You drank your keg beer out of a Solo cup, though, as it has always been since the ancient times.