The Psi Upsilon Foundation published their 2023 Garnet Report, an annual publication reviewing programs of the Foundation and a listing on contributers to the Annual Fund.
Articles Include:
The Scholarship Announcement Keynote presentation by Mark DiPasquale, Pi ’88 (Syracuse)
The President’s Circle Annual Giving recognition
Announcing Jay Riemenschnieder, Beta Alpha ’90 (Miami Ohio) joining the Foundation Staff
Foundation Grants and Stipends
Creation of the Charles Hall, Nu Alpha ’71 (Washington & Lee) Fund
All donors who are a Gold Member of the Founder’s Society and above receive printed copies of all the Psi Upsilon Foundation Publications – if you would like to make your gift and support Psi Upsilon please do so here.
Growth Summit, presented by Phired Up & TechniPhi, is the premier annual event for the entire fraternity/sorority industry focused on creating a modern pre-member experience (marketing, recruitment, intake, and retention). Growth Summit is the place where sorority/ fraternity leaders, like you, from across the industry gather together to dream, collaborate, and prepare to share the gift of membership with more of the right people. Growth Summit is the conference, the rally, the roundup, the big tent, THE ultimate inclusive gathering for people who want to help grow the fraternity and sorority movement.
The Growth Summit will occur online on June 20th, from 11am until 5pm (Eastern).
This event is open to chapter advisors and volunteers, fraternity professionals, campus professionals, and anyone who is passionate about the Fraternity and Sorority movement. Registration is $100 before May 31 and $125 after May 31. Psi Upsilon is happy to provide one registration per chapter – if you are interested in attending please contact Director of Growth Travis Smith at tsmith@psiu.org for a code to provide at registration.
Come back to the Omicron Chapter house at 313 East Armory and cheer on the Illini as they take on Wisconsin at our homecoming celebration! There will be a more formal list of events at a later date, but expect an open house on Friday, an alumni meeting and tailgate on Saturday.
Itinerary/Schedule of Events for Psi Upsilon Fraternity Homecoming 2023
Friday, October 20, 2023
3:00 pm Brothers begin their Homecoming Weekend by meeting up at Illini Inn (901 S 4th St, Champaign, IL 61820). Don’t forget your “Mug Club” card, even if it is just for storytelling.
7:00 pm The Omicron Alumni Association will provide complimentary beverages for alumni brothers and their guests back at the chapter house
Saturday, October 21, 2023
9:00 am The Omicron Alumni Association will provide donuts and coffee for alumni brothers and their guests
9:34 am The Alumni Association will conduct elections and a board meeting. All alumni and active brothers are invited to attend
11:00 am Illinois-Wisconsin Football Game
3:30 pm Group photograph of alumni and active brothers in the front yard of the chapter house
4:00 pm The Omicron Alumni Association will provide complimentary beverages and a post-game meal for actives, alumni brothers, and their guests
The Chi Delta Alumni Association invites you to celebrate 50 years as the Chi Delta chapter of Psi Upsilon. From the founding of the Chi Delta Phi in 1968 to joining Psi Upsilon in 1973 to the present day, the Chi Delta chapter has undergone many changes. But we have remained strong throughout thanks to our shared values and the eternal bonds of brotherhood. Join us on Saturday, November 4, at the Millennium Durham Hotel to reminisce and reconnect as we celebrate our past and look forward to the future.
Event Schedule Saturday, Nov. 4 6 PM – Cocktail hour 7 PM – Buffet Banquet Entrees: Marinated Steak, Grilled Salmon, and Cauliflower Risotto (veg) 8 PM – Remarks from CDAA President & Reunion Organizer 8:30 – 10 PM – Dessert & Social Hour Other activities for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to come.
For more information and to register for this event please go here
This year, Psi Upsilon is excited to partner with Publishing Concepts Inc (PCI) for The Oral History Project. We want to take time to hear your stories from your Psi U experience.
The goal of the Oral History Project is to unite alums across generations, professions, geography and life experiences. We have partnered with PCI to help collect stories from as many alumni as possible and produce Psi Upsilon’s Oral History Project. This kind of ambitious project has not been undertaking by the fraternity since the publication of The Annals in 1941, and we feel collecting our stories will be a powerful and meaningful collection.
By sharing your memory, you’ll ensure that the rich history of Psi Upsilon will be preserved for generations to come. PCI will be contacting you via mail, phone, and email asking you to participate, share your story, and update your contact information. More information about the project can be found here: https://psiu.org/2023-psiu-oral-history-project/ .
To make this project a success we need you to share your stories with us, please call PCI at 855-376-5979. There is no obligation to buy, and sharing your memories is free.
We know every Psi U has a story, and we want to hear yours!
Jay Berwanger, Omega ’36 (Chicago), has a storied football history with the Chicago Maroons where he earned the nickname “The One Man Team”. While his position was officially halfback, he played all over the field even handling some of the kicking duties. His senior year he rushed for 577 yards, passed for 405, returned kickoffs for 359 and added five PATs. All his accomplishments led him to be the Big Ten Most Valuable Player, a unanimous All-American, and was the first recipient of the Downtown Athletic Club trophy in 1935 – which was renamed the Heisman Trophy in 1936!
Posing with the original “Downtown Athletic Club” Trophy in 1935
These achievements led to him becoming the first NFL draft pick in 1936, which also happened to be the first ever NFL draft!
Prior to 1936 every collegiate player was considered a free agent and signed by the team of their choosing. It would usually be one that offered the largest contract or had the best reputation, with undesirable clubs struggling. In 1935, Stan Kostka, a standout running back on the Minnesota Gophers, caused a particularly heated bidding war, eventually signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers for a $5,000 contract. This led the NFL owners to create a draft to increase parity in the league, allowing the teams with the worst records the ability to sign players first.
The first NFL draft was quite different than what we witness today: the nine NFL teams didn’t have scouting departments, there was no media coverage of the draft, collegiate football was more popular than pro ball and salaries weren’t competitive with many professional jobs out of college, and many NFL players had second jobs. In fact, of the 81 players drafted in 1936, only 31 ever played in the NFL. The 1936 draft was held in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia on Feb 8, 1936, and 90 graduating seniors had their names written on a blackboard that owners chose from. The Philadelphia Eagles had the first pick and drafted Jay Berwanger but knew they couldn’t sign him for the salary he was asking for and traded the pick to the Chicago Bears. Supposedly Berwanger was looking for two years guaranteed for $25,000 and Bears owner George Halas was willing to go to $13,500 but not anymore (the average player salary at that time was around $2,000 per season, which would be about $40,000 today).
Brother Berwanger went on and worked for a rubber company and coached at the University of Chicago after college. After Pearl Harbor he enlisted in the Navy and then he founded Jay Berwanger, Inc in Downers Grove in 1949 – a plastic and rubber manufacturing company.
Some additional facts about Brother Berwanger:
On winning the first Heisman: “It wasn’t really a big deal when I got it,” Berwanger recalled in a 1985 interview. “I was more excited about the trip than the trophy because it was my first flight.” In fact the Chicago Tribune first referenced it as “A trophy at a luncheon”
Berwanger once met President Gerald Ford, who told him, “I think of you every morning when I shave.” Ford was a linebacker at the University of Michigan and had a scar on his face from the time he tackled Berwanger. He was the only Heisman winner to be brought down by a future U.S. president.
Berwanger did end up playing sports after his collegiate career – and successfully at that! After graduating but before enlisting in the Navy he played for a Chicago Rugby team that won 19 straight games. In fact he played a game in Soldier Field against a New York club that featured Larry Kelly, the second winner of the Heisman Trophy, who also never played in the NFL. He was inducted into the Rugby Hall of Fame in 2016.
Chapter Corporation Presidents and Alumni Advisors Town Hall: Wednesday April 26th 6-7PM EST
Our monthly check in for alumni presidents and alumni advisors to connect, share resources and ask questions. All Chapter Corporation presidents and advisors are invited to attend this zoom conference if you would like an invite to this Zoom conference please contact Executive Director Thomas Fox at tfox@psiu.org.
The 2023 March Challenge is one for the history books! 223 donors from 32 chapters helped us raise over $45,000! THANK YOU to everyone who helped make the campaign so successful, especially those who made generous matching gifts:
Alex Senchak, Eta ’06 (Lehigh)
Garrett Gleim, Tau ’01 (Pennsylvania)
Larry Rakers, Omicron ’86 (Illinois)
Jeremy Mckeon, Eta ’08 (Lehigh)
Thomas Fox, Omicron ’00 (Illinois)
Jim Platner, Phi Delta (Mary Washington)
Earl Henry, Omicron ’69 (Illinois)
Patrick Gilrane, Psi ’83 (Hamilton)
In the end, something was achieved that was not expected: The Eta (Lehigh) and Omicron (Illinois) Chapters tied for first place, each having 38 donors when the campaign ended at Midnight Pacific Time! Rounding out the top 5 chapters were the Gamma Tau (Georgia Tech) with 37 donors, Omega (Chicago) with 20 donors, and Chi Delta (Duke) with 12 donors. But we wanted to point out that both the number of donors and the number of chapters participating are new records for the March Challenge!
2023 March Challenge Leaderboard at Midnight Pacific
And your gifts to this campaign truly make a difference – This campaign specifically raises money towards the Annual Fund that helps support the growth and expansion of Psi Upsilon Fraternity and, since we began it in 2020, it has allowed us to do a number of important things to better support our chapters. As a result of past March Challenges, we’ve been able to:
So thank you again to everyone who participated, helped spread the word and encouraged their brothers to give: we hope you all had some fun with the challenge. Your generosity will help Psi U grow! Again this achievement of raising over $45,000 is an amazing start to 2023!
While the challenge closed at Midnight Pacific on Monday, March 27th, you can still see the page here, the chapter leaderboard, who has contributed from your chapter (and people are still contributing, which we appreciate!)
Below are some of the images we shared throughout the 2023 March Challenge, and we just wanted to thank you all again for making this campaign so much fun and such a success!
The March Challenge is an annual fundraising competition where Psi Upsilon chapters compete against one another to see which has the most number of donors. In 2022 the Gamma Tau Chapter at Georgia Tech came in first place with 46 donors! The other top five chapters were:
Omicron – University of Illinois
Pi – Syracuse University
Eta – Lehigh University
Delta Omicron Provisional – Purdue University
This campaign specifically raises money towards the Annual Fund that helps support the growth and expansion of Psi Upsilon Fraternity and, since we began it in 2020 it has allowed us to do a number of important things to better support our chapters. As a result of past March Challenges, we’ve been able to:
And we’ve seen results – after a 2020 that truly had us nervous about the future of fraternity our chapters were able to rebound and our median chapter size of 55 is actually larger than it has ever been in our past! We’re working hard to support chapters that are still recovering, and trying to restart dormant chapters like the Phi Beta at William & Mary and new chapters like the Delta Omicron Provisional at Purdue.
Richard Barthelmess, Beta Beta 1917 (Trinity College) was a star of the silent film era and influential in Hollywood and helped build it to the institution it is today. He was born into an acting family and got his start in stage plays in college and stock company experience. After some small roles he caught the eye of D.W. Griffith who offered him his breakout roles, first starring opposite Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms in 1919 and then Way Down East in 1920. Soon after this he co-founded his own production company, Inspiration Film Company, in 1921 and then Richard Barthelmess Productions in 1923 to better control his roles.
Barthelmess was known to be one of the most handsome actors of his time. Lillian Gish once described him as having “the most beautiful face of any man who ever went before the camera” and Photoplay magazine called him “The idol of every girl in America” in 1922. Another of his early roles that had much acclaim was in Tol’able Davidwhere he played David Kinemon, a young man who has to choose between supporting his family or seeking revenge against those who crippled his brother and were responsible for his father’s death. The film received the 1921 Photoplay medal of honor and in 2007 was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
In 1927 he became one of the thirty-seven founders of the Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and at the first presentation of the Academy Awards on May 16, 1929 he was nominated for Best Actor twice for his roles in The Noose and The Patent Leather Kid. In addition, he won a special citation for producing The Patent Leather Kid.
Like many actors of the silent era, his acting style was not well suited for sound and his roles started to become smaller in the 1930’s. One of his last standout roles was in Howard Hawk’s Only Angels Have Wings in 1939 and he retired as an actor in 1942. During his Twenty-six year career he was in 80 movies. He enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve during World War II, and served as a lieutenant commander. In 1957 he was among the second group of recipients of the George Eastman Award for his distinguished contribution to the art of film and in 1960 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His son, Stewart Barthelmess, followed in his footsteps at Trinity College and joined the Beta Beta Chapter class of 1944 and while he didn’t become an actor he also served in the Navy.
A collage of various roles performed by Richard Barthelmess
