Happy 50th
Birthday Epsilon Chi
By Brother Don Henderson Epsilon Chi 1962
Salute to Brother Craig Ponder
BROTHER BEN MORRIS' NEWSLETTERS FROM RUSSIA
Brothers of Epsilon
Chi of Sigma Chi,
I thought it might
be good to look back at some of the things we have enjoyed as
Sigs over the years. I must express to you that I
am a sucker for nostalgia and things of the past. I am a long-time collector of
memorabilia and what many would consider junk. I suppose it began with being
raised by Grandparents who survived the depression. They saved everything and
so did my Great Grandmother, as well as my Mother. I now have all of the junk
that I saved, plus what they saved. The good news is,
I kept some of our Sigma Chi history, which I want to share.
If you can put your
brain around it, brothers; its been 50 years since we became Charter members of
Epsilon Chi. As the old saying goes, times flies when you are having fun.
(Sometimes I wish I were not having so much fun!!) If we reminisce a little,
much of what we once knew is gone, along with many of our dear brothers and
loved ones. Do you remember where we were initiated? The Shamrock Hilton now no
longer exists. The
My personal
history that led me to Sigma Chi. I was blessed to grow up in two different
worlds. I lived in a small
My early memories
of fraternity life were when I was invited to go to Jack
Cockerham's house, located near Lamar, for a Kappa Phi get-together. This
must have been in 1958. I don't remember much, but the one thing that I do
remember was playing tackle football in Jack's living room. I won't absolutely
say for certain that there was any alcohol involved, but.....; This was my first
meeting with the Kappa Phi group and I was immediately impressed by the
comradeship shown by all. Little did I know that by joining this group, I would
later be associated with Sigma Chi. At the time, I
didn't know that there was any difference between a local and a national. I had
no inkling that I had joined what I later realized to be the "best fraternity",
Sigma Chi. Even now, I think the hand of
providence was upon me and I was guided to this group.
Kappa Phi 1959 memories and or Sigma Chi- I really do have some foggy memories, but here are a few that I remember. Kappa Phi Dance 1959 Kappa Phi 1960
Intramural
sports- We competed in football, basketball, track, swimming and maybe
tennis and golf (can not remember for sure)
Football-
Yes, we played tackle with full pads. (We did not have full pads in Jack's
living room. Would you believe, NO PADS) I think we played tackle football with 8, but it could have been
6. Dr. MacDonald (our college president) vetoed the tackle football, saying it
was too dangerous, and we then went to flag football. There had never been a
serious injury with pads, but early in the new season of flag football; a
broken leg for one of our players named; Jack ? No,
not Jack Cockerham or Jack
Windlow. I remember this Jack was from Pt. Neches.
So much for tackle being too dangerous. Kappa Phi
and later Sigma Chi, always competed well in sports and this was a great part
of being in a fraternity for me.
Track- I
really don't remember if this was as Kappa Phi or a Sigma Chi, but I was chosen
to run the 440 yard (they called it a "dash", I would suggest "Crawl" would have been more appropriate. Somethings you remember, like the pain in running
440 yards when you have not trained. The good news is when you are 20
something, it ain't
gonna kill ya.
You may think it will...After I ran the race, I was dying on the sideline
when one of my dear brothers informed me to get ready that I had qualified for
the finals. What???? I gave my all on that one and I have to run again?? Are
you kidding me? The other bad news, I was to compete in the finals against some
frat guy that was on the Lamar track team. The good news, he wasn't a 440 guy, but a
distance runner. Oh, that was reassuring. I survived, finishing 2nd
and I then was told that I had to run the low hurdles next. After finishing the
2nd in the 440, Ty Terrell (the Lamar track
coach) approached me and suggested that I try out for the track team. I
declined.What were they trying to do, kill me. I
must have been a pledge or maybe just a dumb country boy.
Swimming and
Diving For some reason I was chosen to dive for our team. Why? I was the
only one brave enough or stupid enough to try it. We did have another person
that was a good diver, but his name escapes me at this moment. I think maybe it
was Wooten. Any how, I volunteered and I did my best Jackknife and was awarded a
1.5 out of 10 and I think they were generous. Age twenty and stupid are
synonymous.
I don't remember
any other specifics of our competitions, but I do remember that we had fun.
Kappa Phi as a
pledge
Salhab's
Park was where we had one of our pledge exercise rallies. Some of the pledges
had been sipping a suds or two before the meeting and this may have led to some
of if not most of the pledges throwing up. The actives led us in several
exercises, including running, push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, and running in
place. The intent was to get us all to throw up, but I wasn't cooperating with
throw up, so the actives kept at it. The final exercise was we had to push a car
up a hill with the brakes on. I suppose some would call this hazing, but not
for me; it was
only a short time since I had participated in my
high school coach's ¿½s workout routine and this was easy. The rest of my
brothers didn't think so.
Walks
Once the actives
took us on a walk and dropped us off somewhere in the boondocks, north of
Hell week for
Kappa Phi
Pledges were
required to go to classes with toe sacks under their clothes, you know; the
scratchy kind. We also had to have
an egg with a string attached to it, so if anyone pulled it, the egg would
break inside your pants. Of course, if your egg lasted a week, it was beginning
to smell.
When hell-night
came, we were scheduled for some more fun things with the actives at
Salhabs, but as luck would have it, it snowed.
Check the records, 1959, snow in Beaumont, either in January or February. Wow!!
It was rumored that we would have been
syruped
and floured, but nature saved us (or providence).
Parties with
Kappa Phi Bill Tarver was our social director and he always had a place for
us to party. Once Bill made a deal with a Mr. Shelton (Mr. Shelton was
oriental) who had a catering service. We were to get free rent at the W.O.W. hall to have a
party in exchange for our working for
One place where we
partied was: The Crown Motel (still on Hwy 90 on the west side of
Beatnik Party-
Everyone grew a beard, I painted one on. I remember crawling through some tunnel that we made to get to enter the party.Bands that we
had at our parties Don't remember the name, but he sounded like Bo
Diddley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley
We had Edgar and
Johnny Winter perform at times
http://www.lunaeterna.net/popcult/winters.htm
Our Sweetheart Ball
Our First
Sweetheart Ball was special to me for several reasons. Of course the most
famous fraternity song ever sung was sung by our group to the first sweetheart,
Barbara Myers(now Humphries). The other reason, my dear sister, Vivien Powers, was
one of the nominees.
The first formal
dance that I ever went to was a sweetheart ball, but it may have been Kappa
Phi, I forget. The only thing I remember was Jack
Cockerham taking off his formal jacket and as he lifted it over his head to
take it off, a ceiling fan grabbed it and ripped it to shreds. I think Jack
bought this one.
Sweetheart Song (some
more drunk Sigs singing??)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzZxnrJwVv0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa5anFKqk5Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cidy2FSzTXY&feature=related
Football at
Lamar One of the really fun things we did at Lamar was going to football
games. We always set together and pulled for our teams. Lamar won more than
they lost. One particular game that I remember was when I was
an alum, still single and living in
Float building was not only a ritual, but an art for Sigma Chi and Kappa Phi.
I remember our
The Beach
Who could ever forget our end of the year parties at the
beach. The entire Greek world of Lamar, both Sorority and Fraternity
gathered at
Sigma Chi
Initiation for Charter Members
Sigma Chi
National was on campus at Lamar for several days prior to our actual
initiation, maybe a week. I can't remember for sure. We each were given one of
the founders as an assignment and then we had to give a short talk to the
group. I was never good at speaking in front of a group and I don't think I did
very well. Sometime during this week, we had to take an exam over the Pledge
book, which we all had been studying prior to this. Maybe this came before, I'm not sure, but what I remember, it was all essay and
took a while to take. I do remember that Craig Ponder made the highest grade,
which was no surprise to anyone. That night we had our quest. We were sent out
in 2's and one group brought back a railroad cross tie. Another group was approached by
2 girls in a convertible, who tried to pick them up. Apparently these girls
were hard to resist, but Sigma Chi was more important, ha!!
The next morning we
were loaded onto a bus and blind folded. Our destination: The Shamrock Hotel in
Top Movies in 1961
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_in_film
College Football
1961- remember we were initiated in February and football was over in January,
so this would be for the fall of '61
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_college_football_season
Basketball 1961
http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0747623.html