I decided to pledge Phi because a number of my friends were already brothers and I got to know a lot of others through them. I came to see that this group was different than most of the other frats in that they didn’t take themselves too seriously, being a member of the fraternity was not all consuming of their lives, and basically they were nice guys. After joining, I continued to find this to be true.

At the time our big fund raising/social activity was to sponsor one or two “Rally to the Keg” events per year. Today we’d never be able to do that, but this was early 70s and times were different. We would make arrangements with a backwoods bar in North Jersey or New York State, map out the route to the place from campus and charge an entry fee (I forget how much) for each car that entered. It would be on a weekend afternoon and each driver was given a set of hints from which they were to figure out where to go. They were also given a sealed envelope with the name and address of the bar in case they got too lost or frustrated. The first car that arrived won a prize; I think we also had second and third place prizes too. If they got there and their envelope had been opened, they were disqualified. And then we’d have a party until the keg ran out. They were a lot of fun, but eventually we stopped them because of fear of someone getting a DWI because we were usually an hour or two away from campus.

Many of the brothers who were active when I was have remained lifelong friends and we remain in touch and get together a few times a year. These are guys I know I can still call, 35 years later, at any time of the day or night, and they will be there to help me with whatever I need. I don’t know of many other people, outside of my immediate family, about whom I can say that.

Jim Mason
Alpha Mu 1971