A Little Greek Past

Our community of Athens Ohio is home to plenty of history, and some of which has an almost unheard yet still interesting history. Having restarted this chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, SAE, we were tasked with having to learn all of its history on our own in order to start teaching it to our new members. My best friend Stephen took on the task of finding out as much as he could and came across the founding of our chapter at http://pattwardlaw.com/SAE/index.htm. Each week Stephen would copy a page of Patt Wardlaw’s story and post it in all of our bathroom stalls, which turned out to be the best way for us to learn it.

It all started as group of older guys, including WWII veterans, decided to start their own fraternity and called it Gamma Gamma Gamma or Tri-Gams. They grew very quickly and they needed a house. The house that I am typing at right now is the same house our founding fathers lived in when they signed the lease in fall of 1951 for 57 East State St. The house was originally built by two sisters for a sorority but went depression-broke before the girls could rent it. As such the sisters moved in themselves and despite other Greek organizations constantly trying to buy it refused to sell it. The Tri-Gams were able to sway the ladies because they felt that they could trust the “older guys” that made of the Fraternity. They proceeded to repair and paint the old worn out building over the summer. The result shocked the entire local Greek community that shadowed almost every other fraternity house on campus.

We thought this was where the story ended but we learned otherwise when my fraternity was lucky enough to have our fellow brother alumni come down for a reunion supported by barbeque and beer. They were a fairly big group from the 70s and 80s and brought plenty of our chapters’ history for us to enjoy. The older half of them actually did not get to live in the house because they had been kicked off campus because of their low GPA. They said it was a .06 accumulative but that did not stop them from staying together regardless. They all lived on another house off Mill St. to stay together even thought they weren’t recognized officially. By the time they had graduated all but 3 of their approximately 37 brothers had an arrest recorded and had been nominated the “Animal House” fraternity by Playboy Magazine. Eventually though the managed to require the house and even added on to it! The house has been renovated four times now by the Nationals of SAE and the most recent one was over the summer with $1,000,000 spent on repairs and refurbishment, but will grow each year as we add more to it. Our history has been up and down but we still hope to add and build upon it.