March 1956 Omegaphone
Omegas Urge Alums Attend Founders Day
This year is the 100th anniversary of Theta Chi.
On Founder's Day, April seventh, Omega chapter plans to have the biggest Centennial celebration ever experienced at a Penn State fraternity. A nine-man Founder's Day Committee has been formed, a schedule has been made, and work is in progress to make this Founder's Day one to be long remembered. We urge you alums to attend this celebration to end all celebrations. Bring your wives or get away from them for the weekend; either way there is a good time in store for you. This will be a Founder's Day unlike any you have seen before. So come one! Come all! We'll be waiting for you. See gage three for a schedule of the Founder's Day events.
All Theta Chis To Celebrate 100 Anniversary Year
January 1st ushered in what promises to he the most meaningful year in Theta Chi's history. Every undergraduate chapter, every alumni chapter, every regional conference, every state get-together is expected to recognize the founding of the fraternity on the 100th anniversary, April 10th, or some other suitable date. As a climax will come the Centennial Convention, September 5-8, at the home of Alpha Chapter, Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont.
In addition, it is expected that the Centennial theme will find some kind of expression by undergraduate chap-ters in their formal dance programs, their Homecoming floats and displays, their spring reunions, their initiation banquets, their rushing parties, and their chapter publications. Where campus custom approves, some chapters will use special window displays in business establishments on Founders' Day.
Some of the general fraternity projects for the anniversary year include; the establishment of a scholarship at Norwich University in honor of the fraternity founders, Fredrick Norton Freeman and Arthur Chase; the erection of suitable markers of the site of the founding; the publication of a special Centennial Edition of The Rattle with emphasis upon the history of the fraternity; and the publication. of a revised edition of "Songs of Theta Chi" in honor of the Centennial.
For this last named project, new songs are being sought from undergraduates, pledges, chapters, and alumni. Not only are songs of general character wanted, but those for special purposes: Mother's Day, Dad's Day, a Theta Chi wedding, exchange dinners, dance finales, welcome to an alumnus, a guest from another chapter, or a guest from another fraternity. There is also need for marching songs, drinking songs, pledge songs, novelty songs, humorous songs, and hymns. Prizes will be given to those who contribute the best songs submitted to George Starr Lasber, Athens, Ohio, chairman of the Songbook Committee.
Many Penn State Alumns Going Places — Doing Things
By Win Beidler and Dan Zellem
I've been asking around, and talking to alums and I have come up with the following news about our alums. Jim Lucas was married in late February. Joan Waugh said yes. As usual, Jim was late, ten minutes late for his wedding. Good luck, kids! . . . Richard Growers has recently moved to Ohio and is in the employ of the Alspaugh Co. Hope to see you soon Dick!
Don Williams is reportedly working for General Motors as a consulting engineer up in Hartford, Conn. Walter E, Segl, Sr., has recently bought property along the Florida shore. Good old sunny Florida.
George Walz is the proud father of a bouncing baby boy. "Daddy" is now living in Washington, Pa. Ed Noyes followed suit but he came up with a very pretty daughter. Best of luck to you Red-eye daddies!
Joe Crudo is presently waiting to go on active duty as a 2nd Lt. in the U. S. Air Force. Bill Shomberg is due to come back to the states early this spring. We'll be looking for you, Bill.
Herb Kurtz is now manager of the All Ghan Shrine Country Club, Cumberland, Md. Drop in and say hello, Herbie. Jack Horner is now married and is teaching at State College High School. He also coaches several teams.
George "Marshall" Eyrich is back at Omega doing grad work. Good to see him around again. Bill Elmore is dawn in the deep south around Mobile, Ala. Drop a line, Bill! John Budesky is now out of the service and working in Baltimore.
Jim Krug is still in the employ of Uncle Sam. How's it going, Colonel? Don Kaelin, Bill Reid, Jim Moyer, Win Orbin, Tom Laferrara and Chuck Leech are buzzing the skies since they went into jet training. Lots of luck, men.
Bill Reid. and Warren Homas had a get-together way out west in Arizona, Willie and Don Kaolin are in adjoining rooms at Lackland AFB.
Lamont Smith is attending physical therapy school at the University of Pennsylvania. Doing much running, Smitty? Bill Yonkers, I bear tell, is training for the Olympic tryouts. Good luck on all those hurdles, Bill.
Bob Gohn is the proud father of a second son, Congratulations, Robert is employed by the New York Life Insurance Co., Bob is working in the Johnstown area. Tony Crisoi, a '55 grad, is also a proud papa for the second time, a girl this time. Tony is with Manufacturer's Light and Heat Company and is working in his home town, New Castle.
Frank Cressman is still in Westinghouse's training program, being unaffected of course by the company's strike. James Wolfe, another '55 grad, is still at Omega, continuing his studies and teaching on an assistantship in accounting.
Seaman Apprentice George "Godfrey" Keller recently received the Honorman Certificate upon completion of nine weeks of basic training at the naval center in Bainbridge, Md. George is also a '55 graduate, Bob Hammel, a January graduate in labor management relations, is doing graduate work at the U. of P. Bob did a very fine job as athletic director while at Omega.
Lou Wilson, a recent visitor to Omega, is a student at Temple working on his M.A. degree. Lou also intends to get his Ph. D. in Zoological Science in the near future. First Lt. Ken White is stationed in New York as an Intelligence Officer with the Air Force.
Victory Expected Next Homecoming
Penn State's football team has certainly been letting you alums down in the won and lost column for Homecoming games. This time it was Navy that put the damper on, but those who saw the game won't forget All-Americans George Welsh and Ron Beagle for the Middies. Next season the "Ripper" expects to show the grads a victory for homecoming, Plans are also being made for a parade with floats for that next homecoming.
The Chapter is planning on publishing an Alumni Directory in the near future to help bring our alums together and to make possible the renewing of many old acquaintances. Many of your addresses are outdated or have been changed, so we certainly would appreciate your help in bringing our files up to date. We here at Omega appreciate the alumni support we have been given and as a token of appreciation would like to do something for each of you. We believe that such a directory would be a terrific morale builder among our widely scattered alumni and would tend to bring them closer together, perhaps even providing surprise revelations of fraternity membership even among employees of a large industrial plant or business organization.
We are anticipating the cost will be one dollar per copy. Many hours of work must go into this directory so if each alumnus will fill out the form below and return it promptly you will have been a big help in our keeping in touch with you. If you will enclose a dollar bill with your letter I think you can appreciate the bookwork we can save. One thing we must ask — our deadline is April 15, 1956, so the earlier the better. You can save the Chapter 15 dollars in postage and many hours in writing letters by answering these questions: full name, class, home address, title of position, employer, and business address.
Physical Plant Given New Look
To these Omega's who return this Founder's Day, the house will bear scant resemblance to the physical plant they left upon graduation. In the past year, we have had the entire first floor repainted in pleasing pastel shades replacing the predominant green color that had been there since I pledged in 1951 In addition to the first floor, both the dining room and second and third floor halls as well as the chapter room have under gone major overhauls thanks to an industrious pledge who did the work, and a co-operative brotherhood which increased the house manager's semester budget to allow for this program.
The dining room has been repainted a pleasing rose shade and the prominent place once held by the Penn-Penn State goal post of 1948 is now enhanced by an excellent pose of the Nittany Lion, compliments of the house artist, Dick Gerhard.
I have good reason to say "major overhaul" with referenee to the halls: this small wonder was the pledge project for the class this fall. In addition to repainting the halls "Ripple Green," all the room doors have been flush paneled with plywood and finished in the wood's natural color. This was a real undertaking as those of you familiar with woodworking can imagine; the pledges spent several days of their own time between semesters in completing the job. Upon Brotherization, they repainted the chapter room in essentially the same colors it had been.
As some of you may already know, we now sport a brand new anthracite stoker-fed NRC furnace; it has, with its complete compliment of automatic Honeywell controls, kept us in "heat and hot water," so to speak, for this past semester, thanks to you Alumns.
Fraternally,
Bud Segl, House Manager
A Special Letter To Alumni...
Realizing the limited amount of space that has been given me, I am compelled to make myself very brief (?).
A very hearty hello to all of you. It has been quite a while since I have seen some of you. It would be a pleasure to see you on Founders Day. I trust that those of you that have been away so long will find it convenient to be present. Therefore, I shall anticipate the same, I shall be waiting to greet you whenever you return. It is always good to see you.
As you can see, God has been good to me. I am still here serving in the same capacity and enjoying the very best of health. I'm hoping and praying that my only dream will come true, as I wait to enjoy my one and only desire, and that is to prepare a nice dish of Black Death for one of our legacies to see if his resentment would be like that of his old man. Therefore, for those of you who cannot be present on Founders Day, I will gladly forgive and compromise for a son.
It will be good to sec all of you again, and I trust that you will make this a must. Brothers like Owens, Price, Kellburg, Burkey and McKay have not returned since they graduated. Brother Helpin I have seen once. I was visited once by Brother Woodock. At one time there were so many brothers who visited me quite often. For instance there was Brother Metzger who discovered why I was never made a brother -- "Because I have two black-balls," So you can really see that you owe me a visit, I would enjoy seeing you. Do come and let's have a party. There are plenty of excuses for you to get away. We can celebrate our fifth, our tenth, our fifteenth reunion and we can also discuss a lot of interesting things.
A lot of things have happened to make me think I am getting old, but I'm not that old yet. Naturally living through two wars and overnight slipping out of one age into another does make a fellow think. So you have been challenged to come and see the new look with the forward approach: from a house with forty brothers, an old worn-out stove, a kitchen with wood sinks, and two cars in the parking lot plus a college with five thousand students and Giff, to the same house with the same furniture, fifty or more members, a nineteen forty-two broken down stove, a kitchen with a sink, forty cars in the parking lot, nearly 15,000 students, and a Giff waiting to enjoy some new furniture, new stove, new sink (new kitchen and you).
May I extend to you an invite to enjoy some of Giffie's Afro-Italia spaghetti Saturday, April 8, 1956. Time being served: when you arrive—the same spaghetti (only new pot) for seventeen years. In all sincereness, it will be good to see you and I only want you to realize that we are trying to keep pace with the groWth of our university. Much is needed for us to comply with these demands, and the only way you can get the picture is to come and see for yourself. I sincerely hope that you will consider this opportunity to come and visit with us. May I ask that God will bless you with all the success and happiness that you can endure. I trust that those of you that have been coming will not hesitate, but will make yourselves conspicuous by your presence. I sincerely remain your bumble servant.
Fraternally,
Giffy
Views From The Presidents' Chair
During the past few weeks the fraternity system has been the object of much adverse publicity. The nation's news agencies have called us "childish" and "immature," and have implied, if not asserted that the fraternity system must be overhauled and revamped to justify its further existence.
Looking at these charges from the president's chair with possibly a biased viewpoint but nevertheless with a general knowledge of the workings of a fraternity at the local level, I can not help but feel that our national news agencies are enlarging upon an unfortunate incident without considering the many fine things that the fraternity system has brought about. I don't mean to overlook the accident entirely; death, and the sorrow that follows can never be a pleasant subject no matter what the context, but I am confident that if the authors of these stories criticizing us as being "immature" could spend a week or so in a fraternity house (such as Omega) we could more than justify our place in the educational future of America to our critics.
The fraternity system from my position, on the inside looking out, is a miniature world, a proving ground on which cur future leaders gain confidence in themselves and their fellow men.
The fraternities of America function on the very same premises that are the basis of our American way of life: the rights of the individual to choose his own companions, to act freely, and to be governed democratically.
In the fraternal system the individual has the maximum opportunity to develop and express his talents; for in the fraternity each member has responsibility to his fellows for the good of the organization. In the development of his talents the individual is impressed with the idea that although he has an immediate responsibility to the group, his actions must be consistent with the demands of his nation. The minds of fraternity men are instilled with the idea that personal freedom does not extend beyond the point of infringing upon the rights of others.
In the fraternity, as in a true democracy, both competition and co-operation are essential; without them the system will fail.
Robert Baker, Past President and Truman Burch, President
Omeganotes On Athletics
By John Keller Athletic Chairman
The Omegamen have made a good showing in athletics so far this year. We have participated in intramural football, swimming, basketball, boxing, and bowling, and plans are made to enter teams in volleyball, softball, handball, and wrestling.
In football we won two and lost one. The good passing arm of Bob Baker combined with the great receiving of Bill Strausser and Jack "Monk" Miller made it look like we might go all the way until we lost a thriller to Sigma Pi, 7-6.
Our basketball team had a fair chance with some good-looking prospects, but seemed to lack spirit. We still had a fair season, breaking even. At semester's end we lost the services of last year's high scorer, Monk Miller, and Ron Hansen. Ed Rhoads and Jim Caldwell came through well in the scoring column to help make up the loss. "Easy" Ed hit well on his set shots and Jim was good on the rebounding.
Gene Griffin and Frank Unger led the bowling team to a tie for second place in the first half of the bowling league, and now the boys are climbing towards the top again. They have revamped the team and now there is new blood in there.
The swimming team only lasted one meet in the single elimination tourney. However, Bob Hammel, retired athletic chairman, took diving competition in a runaway, and we would have won the meet, which was with Delta Upsilon, but Bill Frame made a bad turn in the back-stroke and was disqualified after he had taken the event.
It looks as if the wrestling team should be the pride and joy of the house this year. We have the most complete team in the history of Omega chapter with only the 155-pound class open, The lineup will consist of Joe Zimmerman 121, pledge Joe Bucci 128, pledge Dave Jones 145, Jay Livziey 165, Toni Eynon 175, and pledge Bob Maurer unlimited.
Three boxers in the house did well this year. Dan Zellam knocked out his first opponent in 20 seconds of the first round, Gene Griffin lost a very close split decision in the quarter finals, and Tom Smith tore through the 155-pound class like a hurricane but lost in the finals.
Right now we stand eleventh among fifty-six fraternities in the overall intramural race. The wrestling team could very possibly put us in the top ten.
In varsity football competition next year we have three very good prospects in Jim Caldwell, Jay Livziey, and Francis "Bucky" Palone. Caldwell, last season, made great improvement and was a first string end for the major part of the season. He is expected to improve with this experience and next season we have great hopes for him.
Livziey, a halfback, proved himself as a powerful runner last season by getting off some nice long runs. He is expected to have a good chance to prove himself further next season.
Paolone, also halfback, was plagued with injuries last season and didn't get into a game. He had a dislocated shoulder and hurt his knee. However, Bucky, has great potential with his build and speed, and we're sure he will prove himself deserving of much attention and action next season.
The Socialscope
Well, here is another year gone by since we had our last little chat, and during that time quite a few things have happened.
I remember that Region Three conference last year, That's when Omega Chapter left Gettysburg quite satisfied, coming home with so many jugs.
This past fall semester the pledge formal was quite a success. The class didn't join a sorority for the occasion, but the house was beautifully decorated.
Oh, before I go any farther I must get this in. The traditional rivalry between Penn State and Pitt in football brought with it quite a weekful of events. We made room for some Theta Chi's from Pittsburgh, but with the outcome of the game our faces were a little red, However, we did show the boys from the Pitt chapter that we know how to have a good party. The pledges had a scoop those poor guys up from under the tables the next morning.
The chapter and Sigma Delta Tau sorority held a Christmas party for underprivileged children. It really did our hearts good to see those kids' eyes light up. Kinda gives a guy a warm feeling deep down inside.
Jam sessions! Last semester there were two. Beta Theta Pi joined us in the first one, which followed a combined party with them. The last one was really a blast with some real solid Dixieland. Oh, incidentally, music for the first was provided by Dave Appel's "Applejacks" of Jersey Shore fame. Coming up on March 23, the Interfraternity Council will hold its annual dance, The party theme for Saturday night of that week-end is "Roman Holiday." It should prove to be quite interesting. Wine, women, scimpy togas . . . whoopee!
On April seventh Founder's Day will be held here at Omega in conjunction with the Centennial of Theta Chi. Two weeks after that is the Region Three conference at Dickinson College in Carlisle.
Well, Sam, I've enjoyed talking to you. Drop in when you get by this way again, and a hearty welcome will be waiting for you if you decide to pay us a visit.
Well, I guess that about wraps it up! Don't forget Founder's Day. Fine, I knew you wouldn't.
Be seeing you,
Dick Gerhard, Social Chairman
Smidggin's From Smitty
By Tom Smith
Old Grads will be interested in knowing that Giffy's notorious gut-busting pancakes have been given a new name, Formerly known as "collision mats," they are now referred to as "Zulu wheels" or "Mau-Mau Patties."
Every Wednesday morning sleepy-eyed brothers are startled into wakefulness when, upon entering the kitchen, they spot the sign hanging over the stove which reads: "Nobody loves a coward. Try Giffy's pancakes."
Without casting aspersions at our renowned chef's cuisinary abilities, we have taken a few minutes to compose a little rhyme dedicated to his hotcakes. Based on Mother Goose, it is entitled, "Cooking a Brother's Goose." Without further ado, we present it to you
Sing heigh diddle diddle,
The fat's on the griddle,
The batter is poured with a spoon;
Giffy's gone daft!
I laughed and laughed,
He's mixing it in a spittoon.
Judging from previous Founder's Day parties, homecoming alums will really live it up this year. Forewarned of the occasion, and alerted to the fact that old Omega men possess prodigious capacities and the dryest throats this side of the Dust Bowl, local beverage distributors have placed emergency rush orders with their sources of supply! We noted with pleasant surprise last year that there's plenty of life in the old boys yet, as the saying goes, and that many of the younger actives and inexperienced pledges fell by the proverbial wayside as the festivities became more festive. However we did notice one gentleman who looked a hit "tired," shall we say? To him we commemorate this limerick.
There was an Old Grad from Omega,
Who drank too much beer from the keg-a,
He slipped on the grass,
Fell down on his back,
Since then he prefers Haig & Haig-a.
Last semester Theta Chi pledged what is perhaps the youngest member who ever entered the house. Six months old, he presented a rather ungainly appearance with his undershot jaw and clipped ears, However, he seemed friendly enough, though a bit timid, and he wagged his stump of a tail when we shook his paw in greeting. Many in the brotherhood took an immediate shine to him, but others were not so sure. Finally, last week, it was decided to de-pledge Ox, as he is called. It seems that pledging was a harrowing experience for the fawn-coated Boxer puppy, and he just can't adjust himself to his surroundings. Suffering severe mental strain, Ox began having hallucinations in which he insisted that the piano leg was a fire-plug,
Nine Pledge Spring Semester
For the Spring semester of '56 Omega has pledged nine new men, six of whom are sophomores.
Bob Adams, fourth semester Business Administration major, hails from Johnstown, Pa. He is a member of the debate team, and is interested in intramural spurts.
Joe Bocci is a sixth semester Education major. Joe graduated from Monessen High School and is a vet. His main interests lie with photography and music, He also wrestles for the house intramural team.
John Coleman, from Gettysburg, PA., is a fourth semester Civil Engineer. Jim plays intramurally sports and is an excellent trackman. His is also a candidate for the Daily Collegian business staff.
Six-Foot, five-inch Ed Latchman from Charlcroi is a sixth semester Civil Engineer, Ed is a mainstay of the volleyball team and plays all sports.
Bob “Fudd” Maurer is a Phys Ed major in his forth semester. He is from Watertown, New York, and is playing all sports for the house.
Ron Davis, sixth semester sociology major is from New Castle. Ron is a member of Alpha Phi Omega, Sociology Club, and French Club. He is captain of the pledge class.
This year Omega has a brother team in its pledge class. Dave and Bon Jones are twins. Bob, a fourth semester electrical engineer, plays piano, is a member of the Alpha Phi Omega, and wrestles for the house. Dave, a sophomore in Pre-Law plays bass, tennis, and also wrestles. The Jones boys are from Bethlehem.
Jerry Shealer, fourth semester business management student, hails from Gettysburg. Jerry’s interests lie mostly with the outdoors. He is interested in fishing and sports cars.
Thank you to all those brothers that shared their news.
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