Tom Hanford, Gamma ‘62 (Amherst)

” ‘That fall Gehrig pledged Phi Delta Theta (Columbia). He had enough independence, at least, not to join Sigma Nu, the fraternity that employed his mother. He would eat dinner with the Phi Delts, then rush over to Sigma Nu to help his mother clear tables. . . no wonder he had trouble making friends.

Columbia men came from mostly wealthy families and elite private schools, not from tenements. Gehrig aligned himself, not with his fraternity brothers, but with his mother, as he would most of his life. (When the Yankees went to spring training in 1926 only Gehrig came with his mother). ‘

So writes the biographer. Yet when Gehrig went to Pittsburgh for the 1927 World Series, the Pitt Chapter of Phi Delta Theta invited Gehrig to be guest of honor at a fraternity smoker and he accepted. The biographer expressed great surprise at this. The author  didn’t understand the power  of fraternity–on the surface it looked to the outside researcher that Gehrig really didn’t “get” anything from his fraternity. Yet that he accepted an invitation in the middle of the World Series, surely speaks volumes and shows the opposite is most likely to be true.”

Not anything directly about Psi U but I think it is most interesting and relevant to what we are doing.

In the bonds,
Tom Hanford, Gamma ‘62 (Amherst)