Cup (the official game of the NSCL"National Styrofoam Cup Leage") is a game played with a styrofoam cup, that is hit at other players participating in the game. The object is to keep the cup in the air for as long as you can, and make the other players miss the cup without physical contact, or throwing other objects in their path. The game is often related to volleyball or badmiton.

Rules

Cup is a game of skill, and requires excellent hand-eye coordination to be successful at it. Not only does it take great athletic ability, but also intellectual awareness. The game can be played anywhere, with a minimum of two players, maximum of about eight to ten. The cup is then tossed up, signally the start of the game.
1. Serving: The serve is determined by the referee. If the referee decides not to offer the serve to one of the players, any one of the players may dive for the cup, having their chance to serve. Most of the time the serve is determined by who ever is closest to the cup once it hits the ground. There are numerous variations of serving in the game. The most common is the forward serve, basically tossing the cup in the air, and smashing it at any of the other players playing. Other forms of serves...power serve, san francisco spin, kick serve, and the scoop serve.
2. The server has the opportunity to serve it to anyone, so observation is key. Once the cup is in the air, it cannot touch the ground. The players keep the cup in the air, and whenever someone misses the cup, and it falls down near them, that is a point scored against them.
3. Points: A player does not want point. The maximum points a player can recieve is five. Once this happens, the player is eliminated from the game. The last person remaining in the game, is the winner. Often, the game is played in series. (NSCL plays championship games in series of 3).
4. Danger Zone: The danger zone is the imaginary cylinder surrounding each player in the game. The imaginary cylinder starts at the ground, and goes up into infinaty. The cylider follows the player, wherever they move, so does their danger zone, or cylinder. Each danger zone is two feet in radius. It is often that a referee makes a close call if a player gets scored upon on the outer edges of the danger zone.
5. Options: If the cup hits off of a wall, ceiling, body part, etc. the cup is still in play, and the player closest to it can still hit it to another player. As long as the cup does not touch the ground, it is still in play. Once it does touch the ground, and no one is scored upon, then the referee allows the reserve. This happens every time the cup touches the ground.
6. Below the Waist Area. On a serve/volley, if the cup hits the player below the waist, or is clearly out of range for the player to hit back, then the cup is dead, and the referee calls a reserve. It is very important that the referee pay attention to the actions of the game. The danger zone and the below the waist area must be observed carefully.

P & V Atlas Industrial Center owned Graf products, but failed to keep the product in good status. So Graf products were sold to Canada Dry Company. They too failed to keep Graf products flourishing, so they sold Graf to Canfield Company in 1984, situated in Chicago, where they still own Graf products.

Today, Graf products are still being produced, but in very small quantities. Canfield sells mostly Grandpa Graf's root beer, and is mostly shipped to Wisconsin locations. In a 1993 Graf employee reunion, one employee recalls time working at one of the plants. "It was a family-oriented, fun place to work." [712]

Availability

Grandpa Graf's root beer has slowly diminished over time, and it is becoming harder and harder to find places that keep it in stock. The soda is currently sold in northern, eastern, and southern Wisconsin (most abundant in Milwaukee). Today, Canfield produces Grandpa Graf's, and ships it to other places in Minnesota, Michigan, and where it is produced (Chicago).

Krier Foods, 520 Wolf Road, Random Lake, Wisconsin still has Grandpa Graf's root beer available in great quantities. [713]

The Grandpa

In it's first days, Grandpa Graf's was not called the same as we know it today. Instead it was called Graf's root beer. It was John Graf's grandson, Lawrie Graf, who entitled it Grandpa Graf's, and gave it the magical logo of John Graf's face. Lawrie Graf enlisted the aid of cartoonist Sid Stone to create the caricature of his grandfather, which is the image we know as, "The Grandpa".


In due time, the logo was changed to fit the changing culture, but all in all the logo was left with a more cartoonish touch, with only a few colors. The can was given the root beer color, capping the lid on Grandpa Graf's greatness.

The soda was also produced in glass bottles, which also carried the Grandpa's image on the cap. The same image that is on the can today, was on the bottle cap then in the later versions of the cap. The glass bottled root beer was not has popular as the canned products. Grandpa Graf's is known for it's "ZIP" and burst of flavor, which was apparently found more in the canned beverages than the glass bottles beverages of Grandpa Graf's

Achievements

Grandpa Graf's was well known in the 1940's to 1960's for it's "new" styles and flavors that were not seen in a root beer. According to a 1946 news report, Graf's was producing eight freight car loads of carbonated bottled water or soda everyday. This lead to the widespread of Grandpa Graf's, and was at it's peak in the mid to late 1950's. Graf's was among one of the first companies in the nation to use flat-top can, and also introduced sugar-free sodas. Also, the Graf company was one of the first to use the quart sized bottle, also known as the "family" size bottle. Plus, Graf was one of the first to experiment with the twist-cap bottle, which is now very common today. Graf's won numerous awards in the 1940's, 50's, and 60's. They were best known for their root beer and 50/50 flavored sodas which included lime and grapefruit.

The Showdown

On March 18, 2001, six researchers tested, tasted, and compared seven different types of root beer that were produced all throughout the nation, known as the Great American Root Beer Showdown, and Grandpa Graf's was one of them. Among all the judges, they said that Grandpa Graf's had an average taste, and not the best among the other root beers. However, they graded the root beer 2.66 points in the third round. The other root beers in the showoff were Cool Mountain Root Beer (3.19), Gale's (2.31), Gray's (3.03), Spreacher's (3.44), Baumeister (3.58), and IBC (3.22). With a score of 2.66, Grandpa Graf's finished in sixth place out of seven (where's the love?). [714]

Links

Check out some of these websites which feature Canfields Products and Grandpa Graf's. Plus some other brands of classic root beers!

http://www.beveragesdirect.com/detail-776-Canfields_5050_Soda_12_Pack.asp.

http://www.delicioussparklingtemperancedrinks.net/rbeer