Last weekend I went down to Christopher Newport University
for homecoming. I hosted the VA Pi SigEp
Alumni tailgate with my friend Spencer.
A few years ago we started going back for the tailgate and football
game. Each year we have stopped by the
undergrad tailgate and met the brothers and every year I am more and more
impressed with the men of VA Pi. As a
founding father of our chapter I take great pride in what our chapter has
become. This year was no different. However this year there was not an alumni
tailgate, so Spencer and I decided we would offer to host it so the brother who
were going to be in town had a place to stop by, reconnect, and have some food. It has become something that I thoroughly
look forward to every year. This year I
was also able to bring my daughter along and let her see her future campus.
Also this coming weekend I will be heading back down to CNU
to celebrate with my brothers our 10 year charter anniversary. It is going to be the most fraternity events
that I have attended in a single week since college. If you throw in O’Gradyfest which is a bunch
of alumni it’ll be 3 events this month.
The only downside to all of these events is that it makes me want more events
to interact with the brothers. I definitely
do not take them for granted anymore because each year it seems to get harder
and harder to get people together. But
in this week that I am indulging myself in SigEp-ness I thought I would share
some of my favorite memories about being a member of this great
fraternity. Since it’s been 10 years, I
figure 10 things should be enough. This
also may end up being multiple blogs depending on how long the stories end up
being.
#10 – Chapter Meetings: The fun ones.
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| Sigma Phi Epsilon Founders |
Most of the Chapter was boring and just something you went
to each week because that’s what you do when you are in a fraternity. But every once in a while something
ridiculous happens and that’s why this made the list. Its last because it is still chapter, no
matter how funny something was that happened.
There are four things that I will cover here and that’s because 11/12
years later they are the only ones that have stuck with me.
First our chapter made a rule early on that members were not
allowed to sing the song Yo-Ho in mixed company. We felt the song was disrespectful to women
and we did not want to make it seem we were going to be that type of fraternity
when we started on campus. Every year
there was an event one of the sororities hosted where the fraternities would
sing songs to the girls. I was never
able to make it to that event but from what I heard those songs were never “Sweet”
songs. I also can’t say that Yo-Ho was
one of the songs other fraternities sang.
But SigEp would sing out sweetheart song and give the girls roses.
Anyways, back to Yo-Ho.
One night while partying at Jefferson East a brother started to sing
that song. Someone got him to stop before
many joined in. The next day in chapter
it was brought up that a brother was singing the song and something should be
done about it by the Chaplain. The
brother who sang the song stood up and loudly exclaimed, “WHO SANG YO-HO LAST
NIGHT, that song is inappropriate and should never be sang by us.” Apparently he was unaware that this
happened. As half the chapter started
laughing he then said, “This is not a laughing matter, this is serious.” As he looked at the E-Board and asked, “What
are we going to do about this?” I looked
at him and said, “That’s a great question, do you realize you were the one
singing the song?” He then sat down. I don’t even remember if anything did happen
to him for singing it. I doubt it
because by that point the whole chapter was laughing in their seats.
Another event that I don’t even know if it actually happened
in chapter, was when Bill Miller showed up at the House after turning over his
duties as Treasurer and said, “I ain’t doing shit next semester,” while
throwing a deuces sign behind his head.
We found out that the undergrads do this after each chapter meeting now
to signify chapter has ended.
The third story was on the day that the heads of the
families were coming up with their family names. Everyone had turned in their names except for
one family. The head of their family was
not around that semester. I just
remember Jacob and Matt sitting in the back of the room coming up with
names. The one they settled on was The
Number One family. Everyone in the room
was shaking their heads at the ridiculousness of the name. I actually think it hurt the guy recording
them to even write it down. To my
knowledge this family is now defunct.
But watching those two fools come up with crazier and crazier names and
then to settle on “The Number One” family was enjoyable. And if you knew the two guys you would
understand just how ridiculous the conversation was that they were having about
their family name.
The last story is about our President during my last
semester, Matt. As President we gave our
number out to the members so they could get a hold of us for emergencies. Well even when I was President, emergencies
were also apparently drunk dialing you at 2, 3, 4 in the morning. In a time before unlimited calling and free
texts this could cause your monthly cell phone bill to be a bit
outrageous. So when Matt took over as
President after my term he eventually changed his number. He did not find the humor in the drunk dials
that I did apparently. Well when we all
realized this at chapter, a few of us brought it up that what a real emergency
happened? How would we get ahold of him? I even tossed the guilt trip of; it’s part of
being the President, at least that’s what I was told when I asked for a portion
of my cell bill to be covered by the chapter.
Well by the end of chapter Matt gave his number out again. I don’t know why but I still laugh about this
story when I think about it. I can only
speak for myself, but I don’t think many drunk dialed him after that. Matt would be the only one who could truly
answer that though. I do know that I received
Drunk dials for the next 3 years until many of the guys who were in the chapter
with me graduated. I think I enjoyed
them even more after graduation.
#9 – Plaza Big Beers: 34 ounces of glory
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| CNU Plaza Time |
Plaza Azteca is in no way affiliated with our fraternity,
but our members did go to this restaurant a lot. In college we were always looking for cheap
beer. Whether it was the Boulevard on
Wednesday night for $3 pitchers of Natty or Plaza for $3 big beers on any
night, day, whenever the mood was right.
The big beer is still something we almost feel obligated to order when
we go to a Plaza with other brothers. In
some strange game of beer ordering chicken.
Nobody wants to be the guy that doesn’t order the big beer. These days it might take an entire sitting to
finish one, but in college it was a bit crazier, as was everything else in
college. I could tell plenty of plaza
stories, but I will stick to two of my favorites.
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| Big Beer |
One day two of my brothers and I went to Plaza dinner. We were getting ready to leave after 2 big
beers because one of the guys had to lead the Sigma meeting at the house. Another guy at the table said let’s get one
more beer before we left. I mentioned it
might not be a good idea since we were heading to the Sigma meeting. Casey said he would pay if we got the third
and finished it in time to make it to the meeting. Well I’m not one to turn down free beer. Needless to say we ordered it and drank
it. Jason and I left and Casey picked up
the tab. I don’t think he intended to
pay for everything.
The last one was actually after college. It was with some of my alumni brothers though
so it still applies. We were celebrating
a brother’s 25th birthday.
Our goal for the night was 5 big bears in one sitting. Well apparently we were a little too rowdy
while trying to finish our 4th beers. The Mayor’s family was also eating there and
asked our waitress, the glorious Sandra to kick us out. Sandra and the owner knew who was asking them
so we were asked to leave once we finished our beers. It almost took the wind out of our sails. We had set out with one goal for the night
and now we were not being allowed to finish.
Well, we got someone to drive us to the other Plaza at Denbigh and got
our 5th beer. Then went back
to the Country Club to hang out for the rest of the night. It is not every day that you are kicked out
of your favorite restaurant by the mayor.
#8 – SigEp Homecoming Tailgates
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| SigEp Flag |
I mentioned most of what I enjoy about these in the beginning
of this post. I am so glad we decided to
go to Homecoming in 2012 because meeting the undergrad rejuvenated my love for
SigEp. I started attending more alumni
events and getting to know some of the younger alumni and the undergrads. The best part as I stated earlier was seeing
how great the chapter had become, but also learning about so much of the stuff
we started in 2003 and 2004 that the chapter was still doing. Seeing what these guys are doing now in 2014
makes me Damn Proud to be a SigEp.
Look back later today or tomorrow for #7 and #6. Then the top 5 will follow. I’d love to hear from some other brothers on
their favorite stories in relation to the 3 topics currently posted.
One day we were trying to come up with an event to host for
the CNU campus, something to raise some money, and to raise alcohol
awareness. The crazy thing is it all
spawned from a challenge another fraternity made while out at the Boulevard on
Wednesday night for $3 pitcher night.
They challenged us to a beer Olympics.
It never happened because we couldn’t figure out the details. Since we were discussing all of this at E-board
we decided we should do something on campus during Alcohol Awareness month. So we did a Root Beer Olympics, we got kegs
of root beer and cases of root beer and Regatta’s floor was never so sticky in
all of its life.
At the event we had drunk goggles with an obstacle course,
root beer pong, a case race, and pitcher chugging. Now what we didn’t account for in any of this
was the carbonation. So the chugging and
case races were not only a race of endurance but probably led to more people
getting sick than if we used actual beer.
The beer pong tournament was a way for teams from all over campus to
once and for all figure out who was the best beer pong team. There would be no more arguments because
anyone who ever uttered the words, show up at my party and prove yourself,
finally had a platform on campus for all to see.
One of the best events of the year started the year after I
graduated. I invited a handful of
brothers to go to the Busch Series race in Richmond with me. We would go down on Friday and tailgate, then
go into the race and have a good time.
It wasn’t hard to get people to come once you told them you could bring
in as much beer as your cooler would hold.
It is still something that continues today. There are years when 20 people show up and
others when just a handful of us return.
It’s a great way to start summer, even if it is in April. Just writing about it now, I can’t wait for
next April when we return to Richmond for another race. We take it all in too. We spend a couple hours walking around the
merchandise trailers; we get there for driver introductions and stay till the
checkers. We used to go to the tobacco
tents to get free dip. Now we usually
just go get a picture with Miss Sprint Cup and race each other on the virtual
machines. WAR TONY STEWART! EARNHARDT!
Kyle Busch is a b****! Then after we get
out of the parking lot we go to Waffle House which isn’t always a good
idea. The next morning we usually wake up
and go to Shoney’s for breakfast. Then
some of us head to the Cup race and the rest usually go home.
