It was the autumn 1988 Christmas/Commencement occasion on the Pi Kappa Alpha chapter on the College of Maryland, the place I first noticed a fraternity rag sheet. As brothers and their dates mingled and downed drinks, a pile of photocopied, stapled pages appeared.
The entrance web page learn, “The 4 Pi’s,” and everybody raced over to learn the newest version, which was written by the graduating seniors to roast the brothers who nonetheless had extra time left in school.
Now, I’ve the previous copies of ragsheets, however I’m not going to point out the contents of them, as a result of a lot of the stuff in there didn’t age nicely.
However the problems with the 4 Pi’s usually had columns of what was “In” and “Out” for that semester, in addition to “golf equipment” that made enjoyable of brothers for a way they dressed, dumb stuff they’d executed, the place they’d be in ten years, and so on.
A kind of predictions that was fairly shut was for Scott Van Pelt, and it stated he’d be doing colour commentary on NBC. About ten years after commencement, he was ending a stint on the Golf Channel and off to ESPN, the place he nonetheless is at this time.
As I paged by that first concern I’d seen, I noticed my identify got here up within the “America’s Most Needed Membership,” as a result of I’d gotten arrested at our pledge tenting journey.
The problems of the 4 Pi’s that got here out on the fall commencement events had the standard trash discuss, in addition to “stocking stuffer,” the place the seniors left issues behind for brothers.
I used to be normally a bit anxious on the commencement events about what could be within the rag sheets about me.
Sometimes, the worst I acquired was being on a listing of fellows who had been “whipped” by their girlfriends. There have been humorous digs right here and there in direction of me, however another guys would get destroyed by phrases.
By the point the commencement occasion for spring 1993 got here round, I used to be completely happy to get my likelihood to work on the 4 Pi’s with the opposite graduating seniors, and we put out the largest version throughout my time in the home. We had heaps to say.
Ultimately, there have been laughs, emotions damage, and reminiscences.