While he may only compete for Washington University athletics in the fall, senior tight end Brennan Fox had a chance to show off his skills at another sport this past weekend in the Washington University Field House.

Fox is a world-champion cup stacker and put those talents on display at halftime during the men’s basketball game on Friday night. Fox’s whole family takes part in the sport, including his father, Bob, who founded the company Speed Stacks, and his sister, Emily, who had held a world record time in multiple stacking events as recently as 2006.

Fox sat down to chat with Student Life about the origins of his talents.

Student Life: So how did this all get started?

Brennan Fox: Well, [cup stacking] was invented in 1980 in Oceanside, Calif., at a Boys & Girls Club. My dad saw it in 1990 on the “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. He ended up becoming a P.E. teacher and introduced it to his P.E. classes in 1996. So that’s how I got involved in it. I started stacking when I was six years old. He introduced it to his classes, and it got so popular; all the students really enjoyed it. So he ended up making his own company out of it called Speed Stacks. I’ve done a couple of commercials for Speed Stacks. I was on the box [for the product], and the set itself was sold in Target and Toys“R”Us and Wal-Mart. So I did a commercial promoting the sport. I’ve also done a cellphone commercial in South Africa. I got to travel around the world doing all different kinds of events and stuff. It’s really cool.

SL: Can you go through some of the details/sets of cup stacking for us?

BF: The standard set has 12 cups, and there are different stacks you can do. In competition there’s three different stacks. There’s a 3-3-3, a 3-6-3, and the last one is called the cycled stack, which is a 3-6-3, then a 6-6, then a 1-10-1, and you end at a 3-6-3. In competition there’s individual racing against a clock and head-to-head relay races with a team.

SL: What have those competitions been like?

BF: It’s kind of cool how those competitions have evolved over the years. I started stacking when I was six years old, and my dad started to introduce it to other people. It started out pretty small, at my elementary school, and it grew to a state tournament, then a national tournament, and now there are world championships. I haven’t competed since high school, and now I just do it for fun, but while I was in high school I stacked for Team USA against people all over the world. We ended up beating Germany in the head-to-head in the world finals.

SL: So your dad essentially got that whole worldwide competition started?

BF: Pretty much. He started his own company and just expanded it to this world competition. It’s pretty cool. It kind of caught fire internationally, and it’s also big in the United States, too.

SL: Did he have any idea that was going to happen?

BF: He had no idea. He just knew that when he introduced it in his classes that kids really enjoyed it so he decided to make his own company out of it, and it’s been pretty successful.

SL: Do you think there are some particular skills that this requires, or is it just something that gets better with practice?

BF: It’s actually pretty easy to learn; it just takes a lot of practice to get good at it. A lot of it helps with your hand-eye coordination and your ambidexterity, using both sides of your body and brain. I’ve played football here for four years, and it really helps on the football field catching a football or using your hand-eye coordination. There are studies out there that say it’s actually pretty beneficial with sports.

SL: Do you help your dad with the company now?

BF: When I was younger, in elementary school, middle school, high school, we would travel all around the world promoting it. We would go to different P.E. conferences and promote it to different people. Because that’s where the main market is, P.E. classes in elementary schools. So we’d promote it through that, but I also traveled across the world. I’ve been to London a couple of times, on a couple of TV shows, and promoted it there. I’ve been to Europe a couple of times. So I’ve helped out promoting it by traveling and doing stuff like that.

SL: Are there any other crazy or extreme stacks you’ve done for fun or in competition?

BF: In competition it’s just the main stacks you do. Just for fun, when I was younger, we used to build towers that were about six or seven feet tall.

SL: Does your dad have any sort of goals as to where it’ll go from here? Obviously you guys have taken stacking pretty far, but is there anything else you guys have in mind?

BF: One ultimate goal, which would be pretty cool, would be to have it in the Olympics one day. The way it’s grown, it’s been pretty cool to see, and it is a competitive sport. To see if it could have the potential to make it into the Olympics, that would be pretty cool to see how it goes. But just to have it keep expanding, I guess, around the U.S. and globally, is a goal.

SL: What’s been your favorite experience in all of this?

BF: My favorite moment, I think, in competition, was when I was a senior in high school and I was an anchor on the U.S. national team and we beat Team Germany in the international challenge. It’s always been a tough challenge between us two. And I guess just throughout doing it, it’s been fun traveling around the world…It’s been a fun thing to do growing up and it’s been a fun thing to share with people here at Wash. U.

SL: Have there been any times [other than this past Friday] you’ve been able to stack here on campus?

BF: I’ve done it for my friends before and taught them, which is fun. I’ve actually been working with the football team. We talk to other high schools, football teams in particular. We’ve been working with the Jason Foundation, which deals with teen suicide, and we’ve gone and talked to them, using stacking as a platform. That’s been a cool opportunity. And it’s been fun to share when people ask if I have any unique talents.