Perspectives
O
A Half Century of Memories
n Dec. 28, 1958, Baltimore Colts fullback Alan Ameche split through the rain, the fog, and the New York Giants defensive line with six minutes left in overtime to claim the NFL championship in what would become known as the “Greatest Game Ever Played.” The back-and-forth contest, played in cavernous Yankee Stadium in front of a nationally televised audience, paid the winners less than $5,000 each and marked a change in the esteem that football would hold in the hearts of Americans for decades to come. Fifteen miles away, in Jamaica, Queens, a small group of men gathered between classes to meet at a lunch table in the only academic building on the St. John’s University campus. Although St. John’s would grow into a highly reputable, nationally known university, the campus at the time was small and austere. Coming together under the Phi Kappa Tau flag in this unlikely conservative Catholic setting, this small gathering would spawn friendships that would span five decades. The post-WWII growth in Phi Kappa Tau had come mainly from new chapters at large state universities. St. John’s, having a small campus with a distinctive religious educational mission under the leadership of Rev. John A. Flynn, represented a divergence in both geography and culture for the Fraternity. “There were rules everywhere—jackets and ties with no exceptions,” Mat Casamassima, St. John’s ’62, remembered. “If you went to the field house to work out, you needed to change back into jacket and tie or be thrown off campus!” In 1958, St. John’s had just finished erecting only its third building on its cozy new Queens campus. Flynn was in the process of moving the St. John’s campus to Queens, from its Brooklyn digs to what was once a distant Depression-era golf course in the neighboring New York City borough. “It was a tight-knit community back then,” said St. John’s Archivist Blythe Roveland-Brenton, Ph.D. “There were no dormitories and the administration and classrooms were pretty much in one building. St. John’s plan was to expand its accessibility to more students who hailed from Long Island and Queens.” To that end, St. John’s did just that. The genesis of the Gamma Gamma chapter was made possible only because the move to the Queens campus attracted hundreds of new students. When asked if they would have attended St. John’s had it not moved to Queens, friends Casamassima, John Bila, St. John’s ’61, and Pat Linehan, St. John’s ’63, declared in unison, “Absolutely not.”
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If the new St. John’s campus location had become a bit more accommodating to these future Phi Taus in the late ’50s, the campus culture had not yet warmed to the idea of a new fraternity. Having been thrice rejected for recognition by the student council, the group remained resolved to rewire the prevailing St. John’s perception of fraternities. “We chose to be trendsetters by being the only fraternity on campus that was not allowed to use the slang word ‘frat’ because we were serious about brotherhood,” Bila said. “Our founders definitely subscribed to National’s prescription against corporeal hazing and humiliation. This in turn attracted men who were more mature, more serious about scholarship and more willing to break with campus tradition.” Guided by an avuncular, soft-spoken faculty advisor named Jack Maran, New York ’24, who would later be recognized with the Phi Kappa Tau Palm Award, and led by its first elected president, Tom Hartman, St. John’s ’60, and first pledge master, Mike Hourican, St. John’s ’60, “the adversity [of gaining a foothold on campus] forged a determination and camaraderie that persisted on campus through the mid-’60s,” Bila said, and would produce lasting lifelong friendships. In December of 1960, the Gamma Gamma chapter at St. John’s received its charter from Domain Chief Don Zeissett, Rensselaer ’41, and continued to receive support from Field Secretary Mike Raleigh, Oklahoma State ’58, and Domain Chief Joe Rizzo, Michigan State ’48, throughout the mid-’60s. Bila suggested that Hourican may have picked up the notion that “Phi Kappa Tau is a fraternity for life” from these early advisors. Today, there are 85 Gamma Gamma alumni from the late ’50s and early ’60s who still keep in regular contact. They distribute a periodic newsletter, enjoy small gatherings with family, and organize an annual event to enjoy each other’s friendship and company. This year, on the weekend of Sept. 19, these men will gather once again at the Shawnee Golf Resort in the Delaware Water Gap National Forest for their annual reunion. In this edition of The Laurel, we celebrate stories of brotherhood, like those of Gamma Gamma chapter, both in purpose and in repose. Just as it would be difficult to fathom that the “Greatest Game Ever Played” would spawn an era 50 years later where the NFL and its players would be haggling over how to split billions of dollars in annual revenue, Phi Kappa Tau’s modest beginnings on the humble St. John’s campus of 1958 continues to produce immodest brotherhood that has only grown over five decades. Steve Hartman, Muskingum ’89, is chief executive officer.
The Laurel | www.phikappatau.org
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Learning. Leading. Serving.
8/22/2011 4:45:53 PM