Pi Kappa Phi was created out of a group called Nu Phi which stood for Non Fraternity. The group was formed as a anti-fraternity ticket for the College of Charleston's Student Government elections. Below is an excerpt from the pi kappa phi history section (
http://www.nuphi.net/history/ )
Also thriving was a campus literary society, the Chrestomathics. The society was similar in function to modern day student government groups. By participating in the activities of the society, students could take their academic pursuits beyond the classroom, debating the ideas and issues of the times. Its officers also comprised the staff of the college's monthly magazine. Because of its prominence and power on campus, the society was important to the students. It was the equivalent of a modern day student government group.
A pact between friends led to the bond that would create the Fraternity.
In the fall of 1904, the literary society held elections to select its officers. The three chapters of national fraternities that existed on campus developed a "slate" of officer candidates from within their ranks. Kroeg, Mixson, Fogarty and some of their friends were not fraternity members, and with all campus fraternity men and their friends already sworn to the fraternity slate, Kroeg knew it would be tough winning unless an opposition party was quickly organized.
In the course of several meetings at Mixson's home on Wentworth Street, the three men led a small campus movement to form a group called Nu Phi, which stood for "non-fraternity." This organization of 15 men formed its own opposing slate and began campaigning. The group adopted "the outline of a hand" as its secret symbol. Meetings of Nu Phi were advertised to members by drawing an outline of a hand on a chalkboard in a classroom. The time of the meeting and the last name of the member hosting it were written inside the outline.
The elections were intense. The Nu Phi men even assigned a member to kidnap those who might vote for the fraternity ticket on election day. As the group worked together, and as election day approached, they realized that they possessed the skills, desire and friendship needed to build something of lasting value. In spite of their efforts, however, the Nu Phi ticket did not do well in the final count. It was later discovered that several of the members of Nu Phi had been disloyal to the group and had voted for the fraternity ticket. Kroeg, in his determination to see his friends given the opportunity to influence the campus like the fraternity men, decided that the only recourse was to start a new, full-fledged fraternity.
The loyal Nu Phi's agreed to hold a meeting on December 10, 1904, at Simon's home at 90 Broad Street to found a fraternity.
Seven Nu Phi's were at the meeting: Kroeg, Fogarty, Mixson, A. Pelzer Wagener, Thomas F. Mosimann, Theodore Barnwell Kelly and James Fogarty, Simon's younger brother. All were friends and students at the College, and had grown up together in Charleston.
Wagener was a superior scholar of Greek and Latin, much like John Heath, the founder of the first fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, at the College of William and Mary. Wagener would go on to teach Greek and Latin at William and Mary, and appropriately enough, it was he who recommended the letters, "Pi Kappa Phi," and their secret meaning as the official new name of the group.
At that ever-important meeting on December 10, Harry Mixson wrote out the first minutes of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity in dark green ink.
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