40 Fun Facts About Pi Kappa Phi

Nu Phi, the 1904 campus party that became Pi Kappa Phi, assigned one member to do what to likely rival voters?

Kidnap them was the election-day plan for anyone likely to back the other ticket. Nu Phi still lost, because several of its own men quietly voted for the opposing slate.

Pi Kappa Phi member Gaylord Nelson, a governor and U.S. senator from Wisconsin, founded which annual observance in 1970?

Earth Day began as a teach-in on environmental issues on April 22, 1970, and it launched a new wave of environmental activism across the United States.

Pi Kappa Phi member Adrian Cronauer's years as an Armed Forces Radio disc jockey inspired which 1987 film?

Good Morning, Vietnam starred Robin Williams as Cronauer, an Air Force sergeant who had chosen broadcasting over flight training when he enlisted in the early 1960s.

Which Hall of Fame manager, who ran the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1976 to 1996, was also a Pi Kappa Phi member?

Tommy Lasorda won two World Series with the Dodgers and reached Cooperstown in 1997. Pi Kappa Phi lists him as a member-at-large, not with any campus chapter.

Pi Kappa Phi brother William Kouwenhoven, a Johns Hopkins engineer, is credited with inventing which lifesaving device?

The heart defibrillator made Kouwenhoven's name, but he also helped develop closed-chest cardiac massage, which earned him the title Father of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

Before Pi Kappa Phi existed, its future members ran a campus election slate called Nu Phi, which stood for what?

Non-fraternity was the whole point: Nu Phi's 15 men banded together because the three national chapters on campus voted as a bloc and kept outsiders from winning office.

Pi Kappa Phi brother Malcolm Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for newspaper articles that inspired which 1954 film?

On the Waterfront drew on Johnson's 24-part New York Sun series about crime on the city's docks, though the film moved the story across the river to Hoboken, New Jersey.

Pi Kappa Phi was started on December 10, 1904, by three students at which South Carolina school?

College of Charleston is the oldest municipal college in the United States, and all three of the students who started Pi Kappa Phi there had grown up in the city around it.

Which Pi Kappa Phi cycling event grew out of Bruce Rogers's 1987 solo fundraising ride?

Journey of Hope began the next summer, when a 21-member team rode coast to coast. Its teams now cover more than 8,000 combined miles each year for people with disabilities.

Pi Kappa Phi brother and ex-astronaut Ed Lu co-founded the B612 Foundation to protect the planet from which threat?

Asteroid strikes are what the B612 Foundation works to prevent. Lu helped start it in 2002 while still flying for NASA, then left the agency five years later for Google.

Brothers of Pi Kappa Phi, not to be confused with the Pikes of Pi Kappa Alpha, go by which common nickname?

Pi Kapps is the short form the national office uses itself, from its lists of well-known alumni to the leadership school it runs for chapter officers.

Which flower, also the emblem of England's House of Lancaster, is the official flower of Pi Kappa Phi?

Red rose is the official flower. It sits beside primary colors of gold and white, which Pi Kappa Phi pairs with royal blue as an auxiliary color.

Pi Kappa Phi's official magazine, published since 1909, took which name in 1911 from two of its symbols?

The Star and Lamp replaced a plainer first title that simply called the publication a journal. Every member now gets a life subscription to the twice-yearly magazine.

Pi Kappa Phi's national headquarters, the Kelley A. Bergstrom Leadership Center, is in which North Carolina city?

Charlotte is home to the center, which also houses a museum displaying the original minutes from December 10, 1904, and the very first membership badge.

Which annual Pi Kappa Phi celebration traces back to a dinner cooked by Harry Mixson's mother on December 10, 1905?

Founders' Day marks the December 10 anniversary. That first dinner toasted a successful opening year, and alumni groups across the country still gather for it each winter.

Which Pi Kappa Phi founder, a 19-year-old senior in 1904, became its first president and drafted its constitution?

Andrew Kroeg resolved to start his own Greek-letter group after the Nu Phi ticket lost its campus election, reasoning that nothing less could match the existing chapters' influence.

Pi Kappa Phi chapters call their president by which title, borrowed from the chief magistrates of ancient Athens?

Archon has been the president's title since the first meeting in 1904, and 12 current or past holders of the office sit on a student board that advises the national council.

Nu Phi, the forerunner of Pi Kappa Phi, announced secret meetings by sketching which symbol on a classroom chalkboard?

A hand was the secret sign. Inside the sketched outline, members wrote the meeting time and the last name of whoever was hosting that night.

Pi Kappa Phi alumnus Wally Butts won a 1942 national championship as head football coach of which team?

Georgia Bulldogs teams under Butts also won four Southeastern Conference titles. He coached in Athens from 1939 to 1960 after playing three sports at Mercer University.

Pi Kappa Phi's second chapter, Beta, was chartered in 1907 at which South Carolina school?

Presbyterian College and the Alpha campus were then the only two South Carolina schools where Greek-letter groups were allowed, because state law barred them at public colleges.

Pi Kappa Phi's Gamma chapter, its first long-distance chapter and first with a house, formed in 1909 at which school?

UC Berkeley gave Pi Kappa Phi a West Coast chapter within five years of its 1904 start, the leap that turned a small South Carolina brotherhood into a national organization.

Pi Kappa Phi's national convention, held every two years to conduct legislative business, goes by which name?

Supreme Chapter is formed by temporarily dissolving every chapter into one body, and it also elects the seven alumni who sit on the governing National Council.

J. Friend Day wrote Pi Kappa Phi's Student Creed in 1932 while holding which office?

National Historian was Day's post when the National Council directed him to write it. A member of the Emory chapter, he produced a text that has never been revised.

Which value, defined as a commitment that transcends personal selfishness, heads Pi Kappa Phi's list of public values?

Common Loyalty comes first of the seven. The list closes with Lifelong Commitment, the obligation to stay involved after graduation and keep building the ideal chapter.

Pi Kappa Phi's accountability value tells members to use which approach when confronting brothers who fall short?

Ultimate Respect is also a workshop, in which a trained facilitator teaches chapters how to step in effectively when members break Pi Kappa Phi's expectations.

Pi Kappa Phi's national philanthropy, known as Push America until 2014, now goes by which name?

The Ability Experience was chosen to reflect a mission of recognizing what people can do, and chapters raise more than $1,000,000 a year for the cause.

Pi Kappa Phi's 1977 service project grew from what, designed by sculptor Thomas Sayre for children with disabilities?

Play units by Sayre caught the executive director's eye in 1976, and within a year Pi Kappa Phi had adopted the P.U.S.H. project as a national cause of its own.

Pi Kappa Phi cyclists who cross the United States each summer for charity finish their ride in which city?

Washington, D.C. is the finish line: two teams leave the West Coast, average about 75 miles a day and end together on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Gear Up Florida, Pi Kappa Phi's two-week charity bike ride that starts in Miami, finishes each May in which city?

Tallahassee hosts the finish, a ride-in at the Florida State Capitol that caps about 850 miles through orange-grove country, the Gulf Coast, Orlando and Jacksonville.

On Pi Kappa Phi's charity bike rides, what are the stops where cyclists celebrate with people with disabilities called?

Friendship Visits might be a dance party, adaptive games, a shared meal or campfire songs, and many host organizations circle the team's arrival on the calendar like a holiday.

Pi Kappa Phi men who complete a summer cycling trek for the philanthropy join which honor group, created in 1990?

Pi Alpha Society membership is held by fewer than one percent of all Pi Kappa Phis, a group of more than 3,000 men who have ridden or built for the cause.

Which Pi Kappa Phi brother from Tennessee led the Senate majority and later ran Ronald Reagan's White House staff?

Howard Baker was an alumnus of the Alpha Sigma chapter, and his skill at brokering compromises earned him the nickname the Great Conciliator in the nation's capital.

Which Pi Kappa Phi brother, a Democrat, served South Carolina as governor and then as a U.S. senator until 2005?

Fritz Hollings sat beside Strom Thurmond for 36 years, which made the two South Carolinians the longest-serving duo in the history of the U.S. Senate.

Which novelist, author of Look Homeward, Angel, joined Pi Kappa Phi at the University of North Carolina?

Thomas Wolfe enrolled at Chapel Hill at just 15 and edited the student newspaper, years before the 1929 novel made his name.

Which lead singer of the country band Alabama joined Pi Kappa Phi at Jacksonville State University?

Randy Owen put his music career on hold to finish an English degree there, and his band went on to sell more than 75 million records.

Pi Kappa Phi brother Roger Crouch flew twice in 1997 as a payload specialist aboard which NASA space shuttle?

Columbia carried Crouch twice in three months because a fuel cell fault cut the first flight short, so NASA flew the same microgravity laboratory mission again that July.

Pi Kappa Phi brother Rufus Herring earned the Medal of Honor commanding a gunboat before which 1945 island invasion?

Iwo Jima's defenders hit his gunboat hard during the pre-invasion bombardment. Gravely wounded, Herring took the helm himself, rallied his men and kept the ship in action.

Which Pi Kappa Phi brother, a Hall of Fame infielder, holds baseball's record for the lowest career strikeout rate?

Joe Sewell struck out only three times in the entire 1932 season, and he once went 115 straight games without a single strikeout.

Which YouTube comedian, lead of the mockumentary American Vandal, joined Pi Kappa Phi at the University of Arizona?

Jimmy Tatro began filming comic videos with friends in high school and kept making them at Arizona, which grew into his channel LifeAccordingToJimmy.

New Pi Kappa Phi associates receive an education manual and a pin that share which name?

The White Diamond names both the associate manual and the associate pin. The member badge that Simon Fogarty proposed in 1904 is a diamond too, in black enamel with gold letters.