New Jersey Gay Bar Fires Trivia Host for Giving “Cornell 7 Inches” Best Team Name on Trivia Night

The owners of a gay bar in Jersey City, New Jersey, issued a public apology after a trivia team used a name that mocked sexual assault at Cornell University during a trivia night.

Pint’s founder, Wolf Sterling, and co-owner Tommy DeMaio addressed the incident in a video posted online Thursday (Oct. 8), saying they fired the trivia host responsible for naming the team the best of the night.

As the Hoboken Daily Voice reports, the controversy began after patrons reported on social media that a team at the pint trivia night called themselves “Cornell 7 Inches”, a crude sexual reference to the “Cornell Seven”, a popular name used to refer to the seven students accused by a woman of carrying drugs and sexually assaulting her in a Chi Phi house on October 20, 2020.

One Reddit user who attended the event said the name left them shocked, especially since women were present. They also criticized the host for announcing that the name was “a bit uncomfortable” before choosing it as the best team name.

In the apology video, Sterling called the name “truly offensive”, saying it “violates both how we want to treat our community and the standards we have for our business”.

He said that the host chose the name for the award without the knowledge of the owners and was immediately fired. The bar has also pledged to donate all proceeds from that night’s trivia event to sexual violence prevention programs.

Pint later clarified in the now-deleted comments on her video, saying that the team name was not chosen by a vote, as some posts suggested, but was selected by the trivia host, as Them reports.

“We want to thank the community members who brought this to our attention,” Sterling said in the video. He added that the bar’s goal was to “provide a safe and welcoming space for everyone” and encouraged anyone who felt uncomfortable or mistreated to contact the owners so they could address the issue.

Some commentators condemned the joke as an unacceptable trivialization of sexual violence, while others argued that the backlash against the bar should be distinguished from the actions of the host.

The place, now known as the Pint, first opened in 1911. Sterling bought the business in 2009, after which it began operating as a gay bar.

The Cornell Seven Case

The name refers to allegations by a woman who says she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven men at a Chi Phi fraternity house in Cornell in October 2024. The allegations gained renewed attention after she filed a federal lawsuit against Cornell University and the fraternity in September 2026.

Details included in the lawsuit, including images that appear to show text messages exchanged by fraternity members during the alleged assault, have fueled a wide-ranging discussion about sexual violence and accountability on college campuses. The allegations remain allegations, and the lawsuit is part of the ongoing legal process.

In late September, a prosecutor also announced that the criminal investigation into the allegations would be re-examined, with evidence presented to a grand jury.

Many celebrities have recently spoken out about the Cornell allegations, including Hudson Williams, who supported the arrests of the seven fraternity members named in the civil lawsuit, and Matthew Lillard, who used the moment to support support for trans and queer kids and criticize what he called “cancellation,” saying: “My first instinct is to talk about this idea and the body and the kids and the queer and talking to the kids. I recently reposted something about there being more rapists from that university than there are trans athletes competing in other sports,” before adding, “And I think that’s really relevant.”

Florence Pugh also accused Instagram of ‘censoring’ her Cornell Seven posts.