Brooks Brothers, the 195-year-old clothing company headquartered in New York, will open a new concept store in Ann Arbor, Mich., later this year.

According to annarbor.com, the concept is similar to the traditional Brooks Brothers but geared toward younger, college-aged students and professionals. The retailer first debuted the concept in New York City in 2011, with features such as exposed brick walls, antique furniture and a basement with a foosball table.

FULL STORY

The origins of foosball are unclear and much debated. However, it is generally accepted that modern foosball evolved in Gelderland during the Middle Ages. The game did not find international popularity until the late 19th century, when it spread into the United Kingdom and then to the British Empire, eventually reaching the United States which became the primary fuel for the industrial revolution.

The first foosball-like game is well documented as having taken place in 14th century Europe, on the 30th of May, around 7pm. The venue was a sports castle located in Gelderland, just a few miles north of Rouen.

At that time, foosball was not available to common people and to play in a tournament required a patent of nobility. Essentially, you had to have "blood lines" connected to the ruling class. There were no exceptions and violation of these rules was considered a capital offense.

During this era, foosball was exclusively a four-on-four format because the weight of the rods and men required two hands. These were essentially heavy clubs with large granite men kicking a finely polished round stone weighing about ten pounds.

The first recorded team to hold the World Championship title was led by Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein and his loyal minions of Roland, Wat and Geoffrey.

Some foosball scholars argue that this game of smacking a heavy ball in a goal on a table using rods was also played in 13th-century Netherlands which predates the game in Gelderland. It's not likely we will ever settle this debate, but we can all agree that smacking a foosball into a goal has been and will always be seriously addictive fun.

On the 4v4 format nobody can debate this: History is jam-packed with examples of people having big fun playing the 4v4 format.

(Click the image to order a t-shirt for only $30.70 ... maybe they should rethink their pricing strategy)

4v4 Foosball Birthday - A Gulo Powered Mutation

To be part of this AMAZING FOOS/BDAY EVENT, email us the following info if you only want to play foos:

• Your name (stage or real, we don't care)
• Skill level (are you really good or do you suck? we're cool either way)
• Are you solo? (should we find a team for you?)undefined
• If you're part of a team, send us ALL the team members in one email

If you would like to be a birthday host we need:

• Your name
• Name of birthday person

A birthday host means that we will conspire with you so that your friend thinks you're the one who pulled the entire thing together. Translation: You appear to be an amazing friend, you get all the credit, without all that pesky work. Fine print: To be a birthday host, you will need to cough up $20 to help cover the cost of the expensive ballons and related trimmings.

Send the email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

PS: The only reason we have a bikini chick is because we searched for "bikini foosball" and this was the only image we found. (click the image if ya wanna) So... here's the deal. We need to fill this void. Any hotties that want to become famous with these search terms, let's do it! We will pay CASH MONEY to any Ann Arbor peeps that are willing to get busy in front of a foosball table. Yeah, bring it!