Maverick Chapter With a Halo

A brief history of the Alpha Tau chapter
Written By Tom Dowell in March 1976 and updated December 2010

Alpha Tau has given Pi Kappa Alpha national more than its share of heartburn, but more often its members have been more of an asset than a diversion to the fraternity. It has been a century of excellence, as a training ground for state and national leaders, as well as taking the lead in social change.
 
For years, AT was the largest Pike chapter in the country. And befitting the AT army, it produced 2 national presidents and a bevy of national and regional officers, as well as state and local leaders. Scholastically, AT is among the top chapters of PiKA, a trend being continued by the current members. And even when it wasn’t the top fraternity at the U, as happened in 1971 when it slipped to second on campus, it was still first among PiKA.

Our Legacy Begins

AT got its start in 1911 as a local fraternity, before becoming the 43rd chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha.

As Alpha Tau prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary with Pi Kappa Alpha, it offers a unique and varied history during its existence.

AT got its start in 1911 as a local fraternity, before becoming part of Pi Kappa Alpha 6 months later. Back in 1910, there were 1,163 students enrolled at the University of Utah, and the Greek system consisted of 4 fraternities, 3 local and Sigma Chi, which had arrived the previous year.

Floyd Frost Hatch was a junior at the U in 1910, and hoped to join some friends as a member of Sigma Chi.

Grant Bagley remembered Floyd as a socially-minded young man who liked people.
When Sigma Chi did not offer the hand of friendship to Floyd, he contacted several non affiliated men on campus, including Grant, about starting their own.

On Nov. 13, 1911, Floyd joined with Alpha Cyril Callister, Milton Huffaker Brinton, Pruet Kearns (PK) Goddard, Robert Dalgleish, William Edgar Hunter, James Rolla Thomas, H. Grant Bagley, William L. Sutherland, Carlos Bardwell, Norman Hamilton, Thomas W. Dahlquisht, Ira E. Sherman and Irwin Clawson to form Xi Kappa Phi. They were known as the Kappas.

PK Goddard, along with Norman Hamilton and Irwin Clawson were still around in 1974, and Goddard still had his purple and gold Kappa pin. The founders formed the fraternity with the intention of going national, so in early January, 1912, as the new local fraternity began expanding its membership; they also began looking for the best national fraternity to affiliate with.

“We looked at all the national fraternities, but they were reluctant to come to the western schools,” recalled Grant Bagley, who noted there were no national fraternities at Utah State University 90 miles to the north.

But then they learned that Pi Kappa Alpha had recently changed its constitution to allow for western and northern expansion. So the house petitioned Pi Kappa Alpha, and national sent a representative from St. Louis to evaluate the fraternity in Utah. With a positive recommendation, Xi Kappa Phi became the 43rd chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, when it was installed as Alpha Tau chapter April 12, 1912.

Alpha Tau almost didn’t survive its first year.

The members were renting a house for $15 a month, and “we were a moving force even back then,” Grant recalled with a smile. “We had a hard time paying the rent and moved every year.” Just before school started in fall 1912, the members met at the City/County Building to decide whether to fold or try to rent another house.
 
Grant McFarland, who would later become one of two national presidents from Alpha Tau, was one of 10 pledges in 1917. Dues were $2.50 per month and the chapter house had four different addresses during his 4 years. While he was at school, all 4 student body presidents were Pikes. He also remembers initiations were rough and wild, with a liberal use of the paddle.

The Big War, the War to End All Wars, disrupted the country and PiKA was no exception. Very few meetings were held in 1918-1819 due to a lack of members to attend.

After the war, the fraternity resumed its place on campus, and continued to grow during the 20s. Even as The Depression stretched through the 1930s, AT continued to prosper and excel on campus.
 
Dues were a steep $6 a month, recalled Dr. Steven Hansen, “and we were 2 steps ahead of the Sheriff with the rent each month.” Hal Harmon pledged in 1938, and said dues had jumped to $7 per month. At the time, students were lucky to get 25 cents an hour, no matter what the work. Thus, it took at least 28 hours of work a month to belong to the fraternity.
 
During his senior year, Hal was editor of The Utah Chronicle. During his stewardship, he saw to it that many of the brothers were in paper, including the 1940-41 presidential candidates for senior, junior and sophomore class officers.

World War II interrupted the nation again, but following the war, and the advent of the GI Bill, the Greek System exploded nationwide, and the PiKA army was bigger than ever. Les Goates was one of the pledges in the early 20s. He later became the colorful sports editor for the Deseret News during the 1930s-1960s.

During the 1960s, Shield and Diamond editor, Richard Baumhoff, asked Les to help select an All-Pike football team. With shrewd judgment and careful consideration, he came up with 18 players from Alpha Tau on the 22 man team. Les passed away in November 1975 after many years of service to Alpha Tau and PIKA.

Since it’s founding in 1912, AT has produced 22 student body presidents, which was more impressive in the late ‘60s and 70s when the Greek system began to loose its luster across the nation as The Now Generation opted for individualism and a move away from the establishment, including fraternities. AT’s members have also headed up campus publications 75 times.

Sherm Harmer was the business manager of “The Daily Chronicle” in 1963. Back then, intramural sports were a big deal on campus and that year, PiKA put together an impressive basketball team. The championship game was held before a packed house at the old Ennier Neilson Field House.

The next day, students and facility who missed the game learned the outcome with a large headline of “PiKA Takes 2nd”. Above the headline, a smaller kicker read “Sigma Chi Wins.

It was during this time the house ran afoul of national’s “white only” policy.

At the time, the fraternity, as did most fraternities, had a “White Only” rule, meaning only white college men could belong.
 
At the 1958 national convention, delegates debated and voted to eliminate the rule, but as honorary president, Robert Smythe, namesake of the prestigious Smythe Award, had the first vote and his “no” vote sent the measure down to defeat. Two years later, in Miami, with several chapters in danger of expulsion from their campuses because of civil rights violations, the delegates again voted to eliminate the “White Only” rule.
 
This time, Grant Mcfarlane, recent past national president, was given the task of convincing Robert Smythe to support the move. He was very persuasive, as Smythe led the voting in removing the clause. However, it was understood it was “in name only” and the unwritten rule continued in practice.
 
The Civil Rights movement was picking up steam, but in Utah, it was an Asian kid from Ogden, Denny Miya, who wanted to be a Pike. “It wasn’t a test case in any way,” recalled Lorene “Bernie” Bauch. “He was well liked by the entire chapter and we wanted him in Alpha Tau.” Denny was offered, and accepted, a bid to join. At the time, fall pledges didn’t go active until winter quarter, and although AT knew it had broken the fraternity’s unwritten rule, they wanted Denny in the house.
 
Things might have gone unnoticed, but a field secretary from national made the annual visit to the house. House officers told him they were surprised national hadn’t said anything about Denny Miya. When asked why? The secretary was told Denny’s middle name was Mitzamota.
The secretary explained national would not be happy, but the chapter was unpersuaded.

“I don’t think the secretary made it back to his hotel room before he called national,” said Jim Cannon, who was chapter president at the time.
 
Within days, national sent a telegram to the chapter and university suspending AT’s charter due to alleged drinking and gambling at the fraternity house. That prompted a lively debate on the chapter’s direction between active members and alumni, with the house ready to drop national and go local, and the alums pushing for the house to conform.
 
The university conducted an investigation and was unable to find conclusive proof of the charges. Goat week was held and Denny and his pledge brothers were inducted in an “illegal” initiation. Faced with expulsion from the fraternity, AT launched a telephone and letter campaign to the other chapters to get reinstated.
 
Jim Cannon dropped out of school after winter quarter and headed to chapters in the south and east to make a personal plea for reinstatement. At the National Convention in Denver that summer, the chapter continued to take their case to the delegates from other chapters. “We bought a lot of beer prior to the vote,” said Bernie Bauche. In the end, AT ruled the day and was reinstated by a large margin, and the “White Only” rule was gone.
 
After years of moving from house to house, the fraternity decided to buy a permanent location. In 1939, they bought the house at 51 N. Wolcott, known as “The Lodge” and one of the biggest houses in the area. For the next 35 years, Pi Kappa Alpha was associated with that house, hosting meetings, dinners and dances at the estate.
 
In May 1974, the house at 51 N. Wolcott burned down and due to city building codes, could not be rebuilt as a fraternity. Not ready to fold, the house corps bought the house at 41 University and on Nov. 9, 1974 moved out the owners and were moved in by noon. The neighbors were not amused, and for the next 34 years fought Pikes and the Greek system by adding and enforcing building codes to prevent Greeks from expanding in the neighborhood.

In May 2009, the chapter moved to its current house, the old Delta Delta Delta house on 100 South next to the Chi Omega house. In the late ‘60s, neighbor relations with the Greek System had soured and the University administration decided to step in and see if it could resolve the conflict.

The U offered an area northeast of the dorms, part of the U’s golf course, to the Greeks that would concentrate them on campus and under direct supervision – and more importantly, away from the neighbors.
 
At the time, there were 13 fraternities and 12 sororities on campus and the respective Alumni Associations put together a plan that would group houses together along 2 streets that would be built on the land just below what is now Primary Children’s Hospital.

The plan grouped two and three houses together with plenty of parking. Each house was given a copy of the plans to pick a house location, and surprisingly, all 25 came up with a different location, negating the need to fight over who got first pick. Plans were moving along to make the move, the Pikes had sold 51 N. Wolcott, when the Tri Delts announced they had just dumped $50,000 into their house in the past couple of years and were not going to move anytime soon.

Beta Theta Pi, whose house on the NE corner of 100 South and University Ave, had been condemned to put up a sign that is still there, had been trying to operate out of the Alumni House for a cpuple of years and decided it needed a permanent location. Once Tri Delt said it wouldn’t move, the plan deteriorated and Beta moved to a house on University Ave. a few doors east of the current Pike house.