Ooooh My (Baylor & Hazing)

[Firehouse]

KOT is one of those exceptions-to-the-rule, and I've never seen anything else like it on a state campus. The only places a stong local might dominate a mixed fraternity system (nationals & locals together) are certain Ivy League schools. Dartmouth has some strong locals, but they all used to be national chapters of NIC fraternities. There were significant locals on campuses like Penn State before World War II, but they all eventually merged with some national. Clemson and Virginia Tech had strong systems of locals, but they all went national around 1970.
KOT is truely unique. They were formed as a local and refused to go national when all the other locals at Baylor affiliated with nationals in the early 1970s. Not only did they remain local, but they maintained the status of being considered by most everyone to be the strongest, most prestigeous fraternity at Baylor. For years, the Baylor University website has listed all the IFC fraternities together and KOT was listed separately, but among students KOT held the highest ranking.
I met with their officers years ago in an attempt to get them to go national. I remember telling them that they had no chance of competing against a system of strong nationals. Man, was I wrong! I can't access the Houston Chronicle article, and I am sorry that boys were hurt through hazing - what a waste! - but I can tell you that KOT is one of the strongest fraternity chapters I've ever seen. That's almost impossible for a local to maintain. They are unique.