Chapter History
of the Rho Phi Chapter
of Phi Gamma Delta

1984 - 1985

Preface:

The format of the 1984-85 chapter history has been changed slightly.  Previously, histories were written from the beginning to the end of the school year.  This history, however, covers the time from the beginning to the end of my term of office.  This will hopefully avoid confusion and add more continuity to the historian's main responsibility.

The year which is recorded on the following pages was one filled with success, failure, good times and bad times.  But the underlying power which held us together day in and day out was our commitment to each other as true brothers; each looking upon the other as himself.

I now give you the chapter as I viewed it from January 1984 to January 1985.

The year began as we once again gathered together for our chapter retreat at Turkey Run State Park.  Those of us in the house left a dwelling which had begun to grow colder each night as the winter wore on, and the prospect of leaving the rigors of school behind was an inspiration all its own.

Against the competitively spirited but much too feeble pledge class, the active brothers carried on tradition and crushed their opposition in the FIJI Football Classic.  The final score of 21 to 13, however, does not accurately reflect the agony suffered by the loosing team.  Graduate Brother Dave Letteri officiated the game with a style all his own.  The cheering section was composed of distinguished guests including Mike Lucas (field secretary), Don Mighell, and graduate brothers Bruce Fleck, Kevin Fagan, Jim Wolfley, Mike Cherbak, Mike Callahan, David Roth, Dave Myers (Purple Legionnaire), Steve Farquhar, Clark Fortune, Jeff Hearn, and Blair Hughes.

The new cabinet kept busy meeting with our field secretary, the Board of Chapter Advisors (BCA), and the House Corporation.  Those new chapter officers were: John (Hess) Hesford, president; Steve (Dong) Davidson, recording secretary; Steve (Patty) Patterson, corresponding secretary; and Les (Lester) Haman, historian.  The cabinet ideas which were developed at retreat included setting chapter goals, improving communications and “going for it”.

Our house corporation was also busy trying to find solutions to the problems we were facing in the house - dwindling heat, weakening floors and general upkeep.

The highlight of the retreat was the formal pledging of an outstanding group of freshmen and sophomores.  The ceremony was followed by a presentation by Don Mighell and a night filled with smoky visions of chasing a penniless Ted Poulos away from the poker tables.

While the new cabinet began the task of selecting new committees and new committee chairmen, the house corporation moved into action and the house itself took on a whole new look.  The carport was enclosed with plywood and a heater was installed to allow the repairmen to work on the furnace pipes which had apparently frozen solid.  These “repairs”, however, led to several complications.

As the frozen pipes melted, water began to collect in large quantities.  The result was a continuous drizzle - much like that which annoys all of us during the course of the year in Terre Haute, Indiana.  To make our miniature “Terrible Hole” even more realistic, the portable heater produced an exhaust that only a Hautian could love.  As time went by and our patience wore thin, we finally saw the completion of this project and felt the warming results from a job well done.

On the night of January 30, 1984 our chapter gathered for the initiation of Jim Bielefeld.  Jim had been pledged early in the fall and was living with brothers Danny White and Jim Luckiewicz.  This was the last official meeting of the old cabinet before the installation of the new cabinet.

Later that same week, the newly elected cabinet and a handful of committee chairmen attended the Beta Graduate Chapter’s FIJI State Day in Indianapolis, Indiana.  After several sessions on various aspects of chapter operations, an awards banquet was held to recognize the most outstanding chapter in the state.  Much to our surprise and honor, we were awarded this distinction, and were presented with the Beta Cup - a symbol of our achievement.

With this cup in one arm, president John Hesford gave the opening toast for what was probably the biggest and best purple passion party we have ever had.  If you are not a house manager, that is!  That night, pledge Andy Jansen tried boxing with a wall in the crawl space while several engineers were summoned to find a solution to the overflowing toilet problem.  But all this activity did not hinder one Michael Bates who was rather “active” himself - at least that’s what she said.

It may have been the cleanup the next day which motivated the thinkers in our chapter to improve upon our rather inefficient methods.  Previously our party cleanups were accomplished by house jobs.  This did not always work so well.  If the brother who was supposed to mop the living room was unable to regain consciousness the next day’s entire cleanup effort was delayed.  The solution was to break up the house into two groups.  This later led to the further breakup of each group into three crews.  Each crew worked every other week for about one to two hours.  Not only did the house look better, but it also got done before noon the next day!

As the carpenters finished reinforcing the dining room floor by building a closet around the basement sink, our brothers were reinforcing their skills in picking up women.  All this sudden activity was to prepare for the 1984 Purple Garter Dance.  But before we could get too far out of hand, president John Hesford invited the cabinet to his house for a retreat and to teach us his “methods” with the opposite sex.

Our cabinet retreat, however, was not all fun and games.  We were faced with a very serious problem regarding our award-winning “Rho Phi Times”.  At times when our editors were faced with a shortage of printable material, they sometimes resorted to that which some considered “unprintable” material.  This was, at least, the opinion of our school president, Sam Hulbert.  He gave us two options: 1) Give him 75 copies of the publication to send to our Moms and Dads, or 2) Prove to him that we would change and therefore give him reason not to send the copies.

We held a special chapter meeting, which included pledges, to discuss our options.  We agreed in the meeting that changes were obviously needed and that every brother should be more active in writing articles for the Rho Phi.  We also felt that our activity on campus should be increased to improve communications with the school and to maintain our high reputation.

On the lighter side of the cabinet retreat, each of us seemed to have a specific goal in mind.  Steve Davidson’s was to achieve his “personal best” in beer drinking.  Most brothers think of Steve as an over-achiever, and this was no exception.  Wayne and I also achieved a lofty goal while playing golf.  Unfortunately, it was not the ball, but our scores that were lofted.  Steve Patterson had a great time entertaining Hesford’s dog, Bonnie.  It was hard to tell which one was having more fun.  Hesford’s goal was the “biggest” of all.  His was to play pool with yet another full-figured gal.  I don’t think the chicks he was shooting pool with were quite what he had in mind, but then again I’m not sure if he cared or not considering his state of intoxication.

Our rush chairman, Dave Zabel, lost no time getting used to his new position.  He invited three possible spring pledges to the house to show those freshmen that we were still interested in having them in our fraternity.  They were Scott Titzer, Andy Jones, and Dour Morris.

On March 13^th the pledges and their pledge fathers gathered at the Pizza Inn to share their stories about Spring Break.  Most of these stories, however, must remain unprinted, due mostly to the fact that they are exactly what was meant by “unprintable” material.

The following Weekend, March 17^th, was the date of our annual Pig Dinner.  Our guest speaker was Dr. Patrick Brophy, a professor at Rose-Hulman.  Dennis Aldridge was the honored pledge by having the privilege of eating the cherry from beneath the pig’s tail, while Bob Harker was the honored graduate brother by having the distinction of kissing the pig at the other end.  On the following Sunday yet another brother was to be honored.

On March 18, 1985, Jeff Wheeler was initiated into our midst.  It had been a long pledgeship for Jeff and was an inspiring day for all of us.

Other “inspiring” events included the intramural basketball championship game in which our major team was pitted against Lambda Chi Alpha.  With only seconds remaining brother Erich Teske positioned himself for a final shot.  With only two seconds remaining, brother Teske got the ball and made a fantastic game-ending buzzer-beater to clinch the championship.  Too bad we don’t have basketball in Greek Games!

On the weekend of March 31, pledge class president Clark Sackchewsky, and all the other pledges who were hoping to go active someday, hosted the actives to one of the best road rallies ever.  But even after years of driving experience, “check point virgin” Wayne Mark still could not get past the first check point - after colliding into a rented van driven by Dean Cowling.

Spring has usually been busy in our chapter and this year was not exception.  Following our world-renowned “Road Rallye” we held a FIJI Invitational track meet at which fourth grade students competed with each other for fame and fortune.  The proceeds went to the American Cancer Society.  The attendance was down somewhat from previous years, because of stiffer regulations regarding extra-curricular activities in the public schools, but there was no regulating the enthusiasm of the competitors.

When Steve Davidson ran for office back in January, he expressed the possibility that he might not live in the house a second year.  Our concerns on the matter temporarily faded into the background until we found ourselves in April and hadn’t made a decision one way or another.  He said he definitely would not be living in the house, so the chapter had to decide if a new officer should be elected or if he would be permitted to remain in office while out of the house.

The final decision was to allow him to move out of the house and still remain in office.  The only other time in which this has happened was when an officer moved out of the house after getting married.  Although complications of this sort were not involved in this case, it was still the hopes of the chapter that future cabinet officers would always strive to live in the house if at all possible and that the decision made in Steve’s case should not be a precedent for future decisions.

The final few practices for songfest made the difference once again as our chapter won its only event in Greek Games - Songfest.  Directed by Chuck Moss and accompanied by Steve Proffit, our chapter’s medley of Billy Joel songs took a solid first place, retiring the songfest trophy.  That night, the members of Sigma Nu were invited to our house for an annual post Greek-Games Bash.