Retro Fraternity Rush -totally 80's

BSUPhiSig'92 · #1 06-27-2007, 11:50 PM

So the Saturday of Round Robin comes around, it's a beautiful, late fall day. (at least as beautiful as it gets in Muncie) My friends and I show up at the student center ballroom to be assigned to our Rho Chi group, where there are about 600 guys waiting to go through Round Robin. (fraternity rush numbers are nowhere near that anymore)

The Rho Chis are gathered around the front of the room, all of them wearing navy blazers, khakis, white button downs and repp ties. Jon and I get assigned to the same Rho Chi, who strikes me as being a bit of a meathead.
We will visit all 16 houses on this day, 20 minutes at each-no breaks and lots of walking.

Since it seems to be a trend, and a lot of y'all care about it, I will describe what I was wearing: A&F Khakis (from back when A&F was REALLYold school preppy and not just a mall store; a white turtleneck, and this really nice, Woolrich sweater that I still have (but don't fit into anymore), and my Bean blucher moccasins.

We visited the following 16 chapters for round robin (and keeping in the style of the others):

VW Rabbit Cabriolet
Ford
Oldsmobile
Hyundai
Chevy Monte Carlo
Nissan
Porsche
Buick
VW Microbus
Camaro
BMW
Corvette
Yugo
Honda
Dodge
Mom's station wagon

I've forgotten a lot of what happened at some of the houses, but here are some of the highlights:

VW: Well, to be blunt, I felt more like I was being hit on rather than rushed!

Ford: My Rho Chi belonged to this one. Pretty much the whole chapter seemed like him, and when we went in the house, there was NO furniture on the entire main floor - bizarre.

Oldsmobile: Had an active brother that was - I swear - at least 50 years old. Grey hair and a porn-star mustache. I asked one of the (younger) actives if he was an adviser, and he said "No, he's an active brother." They also had a tiny chapter with a house that could only house 4 guys.

Nissan: Had their round robin party in the garage behind their house. I saw inside the front door of the house, and there was this HUGE hole in the floor of the living room, going down to the basement. They showed us really crappy blueprints of their upcoming new house that was designed by a guy a year ahead of me...

VW Microbus: Showed us this loft/den-type thing that was essentially their opium den or something.

Porsche: We all referred to it as "Polo House" because everyone was wearing Polo cologne and shirts. They swarmed all over me, but ignored most of the other guys.

Monte Carlo: They seemed pretty cool and the guy I talked to was nice.

Honda: Snapped their fingers all the time, all wore identical blue blazers & ties, talked about their famous alumni (only one actually from their chapter) and showed a slide show

Corvette: Pretty cool, the guys were nice, very athletic house.

BMW: Great house, BMOC chapter. First guy I talked to actually turned and walked away from me in mid-sentence. Their rush chair tried to make the save, but...

Yugo: Paul's chapter that he swore we would all love. Not impressed at all.

Mom's station wagon: 'nuff said

Buick: Really friendly guys, who asked me a lot of questions about St. Louis and had a Chow mascot.

UGAalum94 · #2 06-28-2007, 01:09 AM

Ball State is David Letterman's school right?

(I'm mean, it's so much more, I'm sure, but it's the place he went and where he gives the C student scholarship, right)

I'm feeling like I might spot Sigma Chi in the list, maybe?

ForeverRoses · #3 06-28-2007, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlphaGamUGAAlum

Ball State is David Letterman's school right?

(I'm mean, it's so much more, I'm sure, but it's the place he went and where he gives the C student scholarship, right)

I'm feeling like I might spot Sigma Chi in the list, maybe?

Yup- Ball State is David Letterman's school. My husband considered going there and still has an old tee shirt that reads "I'd rather BallU than IU".

Can't wait to hear more!

AlwaysSAI · #4 06-28-2007, 09:08 AM

What's a BMOC chapter?

Leslie Anne · #5 06-28-2007, 10:52 AM

Big Man on Campus

LaneSig · #6 06-28-2007, 11:36 AM

I already spotted Sigma Chi. Unfortunately, I'm betting that they thought Brother Dave being an alumn was their biggest selling point.

TSteven · #7 06-28-2007, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaneSig

I already spotted Sigma Chi. Unfortunately, I'm betting that they thought Brother Dave being an alumn was their biggest selling point.

It was kind of a give away. And not just from the famous alumni reference.

BSUPhiSig'92 · #8 06-28-2007, 11:48 AM

AlwaysSAI - Big Man On Campus (Student Body President, IFC president, etc.)

AlphaGam -

ForeverRoses - The ultimate Ball State t-shirt, although I also always liked the one that said "Do I Have to Go 69 (interstate 69 sign) to get to Ball U"
Ah the double entendres!

And the story continues...

So, back in 1987, fraternity rush was spread out over two weeks, and it was the first year of mandated dry rush, which they were enforcing really strictly.

Round robin was the only event that required we go to all of the houses. Some of the chapters had made good impressions - some really, really, bad.

Now I had approached this whole "rush thing" as just something to do out of curiosity with my friends, since my parents had come just short of forbidding me from joining a fraternity. I hadn't anticipated that I would even be interested, but after meeting some of the guys at a few of the houses, I was seriously reconsidering.

Sunday was the night of my weekly phone call home, so I broke the news to my parents that I was rushing. Suffice to say, they weren't thrilled but as I explained to them "I probably won't even get a bid anywhere."

So the first night of open houses, Pat, Paul, Jon and I all went to Monte Carlo and Porsche. Pat, Paul, and Jon went to Yugo, and I went to Buick by myself. At each chapter we visited it was "Information Night" where the chapter president and/or rush chair talked to the rushees for about 15 -20 minutes about the chapter, and the rest of the time was spent meeting the brothers.

Monte Carlo had a nice house, but it was a big chapter on that campus (140 brothers) that had a strong party reuputation. Their house was in the most prominent location just off campus,and while the guys I met there were nice, I decided that I really didn't think I would fit in a chapter that size.

Porsche was a smaller chapter of about 80 guys, and by far the most preppy chapter at Ball State. I was by far the preppiest guy in my high school, so this chapter appealed to me immediately. Once again, the actives seemed really interested in me, but definitely less so in the other guys. I liked the guys I met, but they had us fill out this questionnaire that the first things it asked after the basic contact info, was "What do your parents do?" and "What is your parent's income?" I was a little put off by that, because it did seem like everbody in the chapter came from affluent families. Their house was also nice, and they had a cook (as did Monte Carlo). I later found out that my great-uncle had been a founding member of the Porsche chapter at Washington & Lee.

The other guys went on to Yugo and I went next door from Porsche to the Buick house. Honestly, their house was one of the crappiest on campus, but in a really great location on the row. The chapter was also the smallest of the three. I came in not knowing anyone other than the guys I had spoken to briefly at round robin. The brothers though were a very eclectic group of guys with no particular "type" predominating. They were very laid back and casual, and I never really got the impression that they were trying to impress me. I think I was the only guy there that didn't already know several of the brothers, but they were really friendly, and I wound up spending an hour talking to a few of them up in the president's room.

So the next morning, the four of us compared notes about the previous night's parties:

Pat was definitely interested only in Monte Carlo.

Paul was most interested in Yugo, but wanted to be invited back to Porsche, mostly because their pledge night was a "Playboy Club" theme party with hot tubs and women in bunny costumes.

Jon was leaning towards Monte Carlo or Yugo.

Oh, and since it was the 80's... EVERYONE in Monte Carlo had a mullet, a handful of the guys in Porsche were sportin' and about half the brothers in Buick. If memory serves (and it probably doesn't), I wore pegged, really pale jeans, and a rugby. I , never,ever sported the mullet.

I decided that I was most interested in Buick, but would still consider Porsche.

LegallyBrunette · #9 06-29-2007, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BSUPhiSig'92

Oh, and since it was the 80's... EVERYONE in Monte Carlo had a mullet, a handful of the guys in Porsche were sportin' and about half the brothers in Buick. If memory serves (and it probably doesn't), I wore pegged, really pale jeans, and a rugby. I , never,ever sported the mullet.

I decided that I was most interested in Buick, but would still consider Porsche.

I love descriptions of the hair/clothes in 80's threads. And I'm glad to hear you resisted peer pressure and avoided the mullet.

Leslie Anne · #10 06-29-2007, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LegallyBrunette

I'm glad to hear you resisted peer pressure and avoided the mullet.

I'll second that!

Leslie Anne · #11 06-28-2007, 02:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BSUPhiSig'92

VW: Well, to be blunt, I felt more like I was being hit on rather than rushed!

VW Microbus: Showed us this loft/den-type thing that was essentially their opium den or something.

Mom's station wagon: 'nuff said

This is just too funny!

So far, I think Porsche, Monte Carlo, Honda, Corvette, and Buick sound promising.

Looking forward to more.