Bucket Brigade

It can be played by young and old with equal skill, but it's not golf.\nIt's often played while drunk, but it's not bowling. \nIt's usually played in a bar, but it's not billiards.\nIt's Sink the Bismark, a tradition at Nick's English Hut since, well, for a while.\nIn any event, the peculiar game of pitchers, pails and pilsner never would have been conceived if it wasn't for Dick Barnes. \nBarnes bought Nick's in 1957, five years after graduating from IU. Then, about 15 years later, he began the Nick's Bucket Brigade.\nMembers of the Bucket Brigade, of which there would eventually be about 250, are members of a select group of Nick's patrons. To be served from one of the dented, banged-up 56 ounce, sheet-metal buckets which hang over the bar, one had to own one. \nTo own a bucket, it must be willed down by a previous member of the Brigade. Of course, Buckets aren't easy to come by and, over the years, many of them have been closely kept by families, fraternities and groups of friends.\nTwo small ledgers contain the names of everyone who's ever owned a bucket. Some of the more prominent local figures on the list include Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis, Tim Knight, basketball commentator John Laskowski, Upstairs Pub owner Steve Engel, former administrative assistant Ron Felling and former IU track star Steve Heidelberg, who, in 1975, held the IU record for the indoor and outdoor mile.\nIn 1983, basketball trainer Tim Garl came to IU and was given a bucket by football strength coach Bill Montgomery.\n"At that time, I didn't realize what it was," Garl says. "I didn't know how unique it was.\n"I had one for a while and then, one time when I was down there and a bunch of guys had come up and sat down with us and I left the bucket on the table when I left. Then a mutual acquaintance said 'Those guys took your bucket.' I thought he was just kidding, but, when he returned, I realized he wasn't. I talked to Dick (Barnes) and he made arrangements for me to get a new one."\nAs time passed, a new tradition was born: Sink the Bismark. This is where the details get murky. The problem with tracing the history of a drinking game is that the people who invented it probably remember the least about how it started. \nRex Barnes says no one knows exactly how the game got started, but it started some time in the '80s and was invented at Nick's. From there, folklore abounds. \nAt least one old-timer at Nick's says Sink the Bis' got started when another drinking game, quarters, was banned at Nick's in the '80s. Needing another game to play, customers began to play Sink the Bismark. \nOthers say Sink the Bis' dated back to the '70s and, an alumnus said Saturday, he'd never seen it played at Nick's (as it was being played at three tables upstairs). Finally, Rick McClund, a Nick's employee since 1981, gives the most verifiable account of the game's origins.\n"It was in 1985 or '86," McClund says. "I was working the bar. People were just foolin' around. They put the dipper in the bucket. Then they started making up rules."\nWhen Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis came to the IU faculty, he was given a bucket. While he doesn't remember exactly who gave it to him, Chancellor Gros Louis said he goes to Nick's about six times per year and that he's "very good" at Sink the Bismark. He sometimes takes the Board of Eons, a student group, to Nick's for a few rounds of Sink the Bis'.\n"Whenever I went with students, we'd always identify the designated driver in advance," he says. "We also make sure we're getting food." \nTime passed, buckets changed hands and, eventually, so did Nick's. In 1996, Dick Barnes's son, Rex, became manager of the bar. That same year, he made buckets of beer usable by the general public for $7.95. While no ordinary customer can purchase "ownership" of a bucket, it does allow temporary use for Sink the Bismark, and it also keeps people from lying about owning a bucket in order to use it.\nBloomington resident Charlie Webb III ended up owning three of them. He inherited his first bucket before he was old enough to go to Nick's. Then, one of his co-workers willed him one before she moved away and, finally, one of his Beta Theta Pi brothers gave him one. \n"They were used quite heavily in college," Webb says. "My fraternity brothers would know that I had the buckets, as well as (manager) Rex Barnes. When there was a long line, they'd go to the front of the line and say 'Would you tell Rex that Charlie Webb is out here.' Then they'd go to the bar and say, 'can we have Charlie Webb's bucket? He's sitting in the corner over here.'"\nToday the Bucket Brigade marches on. While two of Webb's buckets and many others will soon be retired and sold at a charity auction for lack of recent use, Sink the Bismark is still one of the most popular attractions at Nick's. In fact, it's the only drinking game openly promoted at any Bloomington bar. \nAnd, on a late Friday or Saturday night, crowds of students, alumni and locals alike can be seen gathering around their buckets, trying to keep a steady hand for another round of Sink the Bismark.