Greeks on "Tough Man"
 

I was flipping through the channels the other night and saw a promo for the "Tough Man" fights on FX that said something about rival frats fighting it out in the ring. When I tuned in it turned out to be Pikes and ZBTs from the U. of Arizona. The show really stereotyped the ZBTs as the big, crazy drunken partiers; and the Pikes as the athletic jocks. The Pike contestent was their VP, while the ZBT guy was a pledge. The announcers really played up some of the fraternity stereotypes in their comments. It was kind of funny to watch these two guys go at it in the ring and see how quickly they lost steam. The PIKES ended up winning by decision.
Anyone else out there see this?

I caught a good portion of it. The guys could barely last through two rounds! I noticed that the ZBTs had shirts that said 1998 on them, so I wondered how old that episode was.

While I definetly don't think that program didn't do anything to improve the Greek image, I think it could have been sooo much worse.

Hey Pike4Life...

I go to the U of AZ and I must say, that's pretty interesting. ZBT is no longer recognized by the university. I don't know any of them, but I've heard (only heard) that they carry the reputation of being wealthy and primarily Jewish. The Pikes on the other hand are said to be more cowboyish. I really don't know about that. The Pikes that I've known do not strike me as the cowboy types. But hey, everyone's perception is differnt. That's the whole thing...perception.

Just thought I'd share... http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif

Perceptions of other greek organizations can be funny though. I do not advocate labels against another group, but hearing people talk about your own org can be interesting.

Shopgirl,
Thanks for your comments. I was hoping someone from Arizona would have something to say. During the pre-fight hype, they showed the Pikes' trophy case with all the intramural trophies in it and said they were intramural champs for like the last 5 years straight or something like that. The shots of the Pike contestant during his pre-fight interview showed him in a nice shirt and tie. The ZBT's looked like the stereotypical slobs and their pre-fight scenes showed a lot of drunk girls and guys hanging on each other at a party mugging it up for the camera.

It was pretty funny to see those guys try to keep up the energy level in the ring...I guess they never thought it would be so physically taxing to fight for THREE MINUTES. Both of them fell down a lot, and no one really got in many really good punches.

But I agree, it didn't do much to improve the general public's opinion of Greeks, but it really didn't do anything to damage things either.

It's not just a reputation for being Jewish - they have a Jewish background (zbt.org for more info). Their incentives to start a chapter look awesome. It makes me wonder how many national offices send that much funding to their chapters.