Careful, or I just may form some intent to embarrass you.

:eek:

*backing awaaaaay from the keyboard*

:eek:

Here's the thing...stitched letters haven't been around since the dawn of GLOs. Look at some yearbooks (from ANY school) from the 1960s or 1970s, and I'll bet even if people are wearing letters or jersey-type shirts, there isn't a stitched letter in the bunch. It's all screen print.

MC - I get what you are saying but I highly doubt there is anything WRITTEN in any national GLO's policies that differentiates between types of letters (stitched vs screen print). It's all campus culture silliness.

Well of course I'd be surprised if there was any national GLO policy about stitched letters. I'm just saying it's likely one of those things that over time has warped from "only members wear letters in a way that could be seen as a sign of membership" to "only members wear stitched letters," without much thought being given to the reason of the distinction. It just became tradition, and like lots of traditions people don't necessarily remember how it started.

And it may not have been the case everywhere, but jerseys with stitched letters were quite common around here in the 70s; I remember more of them than I do screen printed letters.

Same with me, only I was 90s. Lots of stitched letters, limited screen letters.

I was pretty sure that stitched letters were still common on my campus, so I checked out the panhellenic website. It appears that they are, based in part on this photo of chapter presidents: http://www.greeks.tcu.edu/phc.html

ETA: Bama bid day shirts are jerseys with stitched letters, correct?

Ditto at Kentucky. I would also add that event shirts at UK were not done “way back”.

At UK, there was a sorority that actually had a jersey for their various event coaches. The sorority letters were stitched on the front, while on the back "Coach" was stitched. The jersey was in the colors of the sorority. So when the event was Sigma Chi Derby Day, a Sigma Chi wore one. When the Kappa Sigma Road Race was held, a Kappa Sigma wore one. For the Lambda Chi Alpha Watermelon Bust, a Lambda Chi Alpha wore one. And so on. No one – that I know of – got all discombobulated over it.

From pictures taken around the same time of other Sigma Chi chapters' Derby Day events, this seems to be rather common. In that a Sigma Chi Derby Day Coach wore the sorority’s letters. Either letters stitched on a jersey or screen letters on a tee.

It seems that in general, the campus culture has changed because shirts like these below seem to be more of the norm now. And not just for Sigma Chi and not just at UK. But on other campuses and for other Greek related events as well.

http://www.greekt-shirtsthatrock.com...ns/282734R.jpg

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile..._1291945_n.jpg

One of my sisters told me a story about how she saw a woman with a Lilly Pulitzer Delta Zeta print tote bag. When she asked the woman what chapter she was from she seemed really confused and asked her why she thought she was a Delta Zeta. When my sister told her that her bag was a Delta Zeta print, she just said she got it because she liked the design.

That's one thing I've always wondered about. Before I went Greek I always thought that if you were going to buy Greek licensed things you had to enter your membership number at checkout, I was really surprised when I found out you can just buy them willy nilly.

Also, I've heard of stories of GDIs getting stitched letters of "Gamma Delta Iota." Why would they waste their money by doing that?

Only speaking for my chapter (ADPhi) at my campus (UMass)..Protocol has remained the same over the yrs. Event or advertising shirts could be worn by non-members. but "Colors" or Letters could only be worn by brothers, little sisters when we had them, and SERIOUS girlfriends. Some of our chapters NEVER wear letters. Some let pledges wear them. Some teach our fraternity song to pledges, some don't, and are horrified if they hear them doing it.