Monday: Raising Cane’s Tuesday: Griffith Stadium Wednesday: Kurdistan Thursday: Kappa Gamma Chi Friday:
Dianne’s
and my son Mr. A is in the percussion section of the James Bowie High
School Marching Band down here in Austin. We’re quite proud of him.
The Bowie Bulldogs won the Bands-of-America championship at McLane
Stadium in Waco last weekend. I was wearing my Bulldogs baseball cap
when Bowie was announced as this year’s champs.
There’s one phrase on that Bulldogs baseball cap, however, that makes me chuckle.
“Est. 1988.”
Haha. 1988? I was a college student in Sherman in 1988. As a history
buff, I’m not going to struggle to contain myself when I see 1988.
This guy likes stories, and stories need history.
I shouldn’t
really make fun though. Fraternities and sororities are family, and I
had my own family at Austin College. My fellas were solid, and 30 years
later I still keep in close contact. One of our founders established
the fraternity in the same year he booted a 57-yard field goal to bring
home a football national championship for the Kangaroos. Now, that’s a
story. There’s only one problem, however, with my AC fraternity:
“Est. 1981.”
Haha. 1981? Most of you reading this were established before 1981.
Some of you were maybe even registered to vote in 1981. Pretty lame,
Rho Lambs. Priiiiity laaaame.
There are a large number of
Greek organizations on campus. Most are young and were established
after 1981. A handful of others were created after World War 2. To get
to the good stuff, you gotta go back even further. Back to the first
half of the 20th century. Only a select few make the cut.
Phi
Sigma Alpha and Alpha Delta Chi certainly do. Established during the
Great Depression, these two families have a huge number of tales to
their names. As a storyteller, I’m a fan of both the Sigs and the
Alphas.
Still, they both take a back seat to the queen of AC institutions: Kappa Gamma Chi.
The women of Kappa Gamma Chi celebrate a centennial in 2019. 100
years. NOW we’re talkin’. There’s a lot of history over a century of
existence; the Kappas have stories to tell. They’re good stories too.
That’s to be expected when an organization’s birth is tied to
revolutionary social movements. The Kappas were founded during the
suffragette era, a time when strong women under constant harassment
FINALLY secured the right to vote in Texas and the right to study in
Sherman. I’m a fan of 100-year-old stories, and I’m a fan of
revolutionary badasses. With the Kappas, you get two for the price of
one.
While writing a different Roo story some time ago, I
stumbled upon a 100-year-old Kappa tale. I liked it so much that I
wrote it and sent it to Jenny King
for her to use as she pleased for the Centennial. Jenny was kind
enough to invite me to read it this weekend at the Saturday morning
Kappa brunch. Fraternities and sororities are family, and I respect
family. I’m not a member of the Kappa family obviously, but I
appreciate the guest invite this Homecoming weekend.
Roo Tales are the historic stories of Austin College, and nothing says AC history like Kappa Gamma Chi. See y’all Saturday.
