On Monday, Nov. 27, 1961, four Pitt students sat down to play a game of Monopoly. By the time they stopped, they had made a mark on the history of the iconic game that stands to this day.

The record for the longest Monopoly marathon ever played was set here at Pitt in 1961, when brothers from the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity played for five days straight.

On Wednesday, the game ran into trouble. As anyone who’s even brushed with Monopoly will be aware, a player receives $200 every time he or she passes the space “Go.” The Sigma Alpha Mu brothers had passed “Go” so many times by this point that their bank had run out of money. So naturally, the players wired Parker Brothers, the makers of Monopoly, to suggest a course of action.

As recorded in The Pitt News story about the debacle, the coverage of the game in the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity magazine, and the current directions to Monopoly itself, Parker Brothers did not let this stand. Upon receiving the message of the marathon gamers’ distress, Parker Brothers President Robert Barton wired them back.

“Refuse to let bank fail. Rushing one million Monopoly dollars to you by airmail — carry on.”

According to The Pitt News story from 1961, the brothers loaned back some of their Monopoly money to the bank so they could continue playing while the reserve funds were being flown to Pittsburgh International Airport.

The $1 million in Monopoly money was picked up at the airport by Brink’s Security armored trucks and driven to the fraternity house, arriving on Thursday night, by which time the brothers had broken the bank again.

At this point, the story was picked up by major news outlets across the country, including The Wall Street Journal. According to Leeds, the Journal thought the game was an excellent representation of inflation.

The story from the Sigma Alpha Mu magazine reported that, “Several economics professors suggested their students watch the game and see how the value of money can be deflated when too much of it is in circulation.”

“That’s how a story went viral in those days,” Leeds said.

https://pittnews.com/article/13293/archives/225-way-past-go-the-marathon-monopoly-game/