From The Archives

The Delta Chapter at New York University has one of the oldest chapter traditions in all of Psi U: Its annual Yule Log event. Occurring on the first Monday of December, the Yule log tradition traces from Brother Erik Wallin, Delta 1898, telling of the Swedish tradition of carrying a log to the family Christmas fire following their return from the midnight church service. The senior Delta alum at the event retells this “Tale of the Yule Log” and often this event is coupled with the Initiation of the Fall pledge class of the Delta Chapter. Brothers are then invited, by chronological order, to say a few words similar to how our chapter meetings close with Caibirean Rights.

This year, the Delta Yule Log is happening on Monday, December 4th and not only will the Delta Chapter be initiating its fall pledge class, one of the largest in years, we will also be holding the Founder’s Pledge Ceremony for the students who have formed the Lambda Owl Club and are in the process of reviving our chapter at Columbia University. More info, including how to RSVP, can be found here.

Our Archives contain the following document which was distributed at the 1975 Yule Log.

Reprinted from an article in the August 1989 Diamond, by Tip Hinsdale, Xi ’39.

The eight of us were waiting patiently, looking at the empty track at Grand Central Terminal’s Gate 18 in New York City. Then, slowly, the “Lake Shore Limited” backed in to load up for its journey to Chicago. As the rear of the train approached, it was as if we were in another era: the era of luxury railroad travel, which ended decades ago. Attached to this Amtrak train was a gleaming beauty of a railroad car: Lehigh Black Diamond Limited’s “353.” The observation platform at the rear of the car carried a traditional lit drumhead telling one and all that this car was headed off to Chicago and the 146th Psi Upsilon Convention.

The “353” was built for the now-defunct Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1916 and served as a “mansion on rails” for railroad executives and financiers until its retirement after sixty years of use. The car was purchased a few years ago, and lovingly restored by Richard A. Horstmann, Pi ‘57. Dick, who is the Chairman of Psi Upsilon’s Alumni Advisory Board, and a member of the Executive Council, frequently charters the car for trips all around the United States. We were particularly privileged to have him serve as our host for this very special trip.

It was a lifetime dream of Dick’s to have such a car, and his love for rail travel is apparent when you see him on board the “353.”

There were eight of us fortunate enough to hold reservations for this splendid expedition: Donald S. Smith, Xi ‘39 and his wife Lois, Andrew M. Kerstein, Delta ‘76 and his wife Debbie, Carl A. Beck, Delta ‘41 and his wife Florence, William R. Robie, Epsilon Omega ‘66, President of the Executive Council, and yours truly Robert W. “Tip” Hinsdale, Xi ‘39.

As we entered the car to begin our journey, we marveled at the gleaming brass and polished wood of the lounge, the compact efficiency of the private staterooms, and the splendor of the dining room, each wonderfully appointed to reflect a bygone era. Fresh flowers adorned the lounge as we sat leisurely sipping drinks and nibbling on hors d’oeuvres, awaiting our departure. It was dark as we cleared Grand Central, but we could see the lights of West Point as we journeyed north along the Hudson Valley.

We sat down to dinner in the dining room, starting with a shrimp cocktail and followed with prime rib. Of course each of our meals was launched with the Psi Upsilon Doxology. The chef for our trip was Jonathan Piper, Pi ‘87 and one of our stewards was his father, Donald G. Piper, Pi ‘57, who was also the official photographer for the Convention. Our lead steward was Mr. Jesse Mitchell, well into his 80’s, a retired railroad steward. Jesse served as a true sentimental link to the heyday of railroad travel.

As we continued west through New York State, we sat in the rear observation lounge watching stations pass by, crossing lights flash with the ding, DING, DING, ding of the bells. We listened to the railroad radio as it contacted the train every 100 miles or so to report nothing trailing beneath the cars. Our speed reached as high as 100 M.P.H. on several occasions. By the time we departed Rochester, New York everyone was settled into their berths and sleeping contently.

We awoke to the wonderful smell of breakfast cooking in the kitchen. The “353” journeyed through Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio, South Bend, Indiana and miles of soybean and cornfields. The steel mills of Gary, Indiana were hardly out of sight when we could see Chicago. We soon pulled into the “Windy City’s” Union Station; the concluding point of our westward trip.

After a banner Convention experience, we arrived back at Union Station to find the Lehigh Valley “353” at the rear of the “Broadway Limited,” the fabled Chicago – New York train of the old Pennsylvania Rail Road and still running for Amtrak. It was dark as we left Chicago, but we would be paid back with the daylight views the next day. Dinner was served by the time we hit Fort Wayne, Indiana, and we journeyed east into the night.

By daylight we were in Pittsburgh. The “353” soon started to climb the Appalachian Heights to the mini continental divide. The eastern descent through breathless valleys and gorges, was magnificent. At last we came to the famous Horse Shoe curve where the rails do more than a 180 degree turn in breathless scenery and you can count every car of the train as it curves ahead of you. Through Johnstown, Pennsylvania, scene of the famous 19th century flood, we finally came to Paoli, (how could a Psi U journey not pass through Paoli?) where Henry Poor, Gamma ‘39 and his wife Mary were waving from the platform.

We soon came to Philadelphia where we left the “353” behind and our group continued on to New York. Such a convivial group we were, much picture taking and a lot of serious discussion of where our great fraternity is heading. Each of us are indebted to Dick Horstmann for providing us with the opportunity to make this wonderful trip. The Psi Upsilon Special was indeed a special trip for us all.

You can read more about the Black Diamond, which is now in Steamtown, a National Historic Site in Scranton, PA here: https://www.nps.gov/stea/planyourvisit/lv353.htm

You can read this story, and much more, in the 2023 Edition of Reflections Magazine!

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!

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.
• While at the University of Chicago his coach was Amos Alonzo Stagg, Beta 1888 (Yale). You can read about Staggs contributions to the sport in the First Issue of Psi U Reflections from 2021.

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 David where 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.

Recognizing one’s partner has a long tradition in Fraternity and Sorority Life whether it be serenading, pinning or lavaliering. Most traditions would be specific to each campus, with some common themes: a fraternity or sorority member would give some version of their letters to a significant other – sometimes this would be the member’s badge, or a replica of it, other times this would be a lavalier necklace with the letters, or even a special pin created for just such a purpose and this person would be considered a “sweetheart” of the fraternity. Instances of this behavior go back to early days of fraternity life but didn’t become common until the 1900’s. Probably the most notable song of any fraternity is “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi” which was written in 1911 and may be responsible for popularizing the term. Bing Crosby recorded a version of the song in 1941 and it was twice made into a movie in both 1933 and 1946.

The first reference to the term “Sweetheart” in Psi Upsilon dates to the 1891 edition of the “Songs of Psi Upsilon” and the song “The Origin of Psi Upsilon” written by Chas D. McGuffy, Iota 1863. One verse reads:

“And oft may the gem in its radiance gleam,
Thrice honored, on beauty’s breast,
Sister, or sweetheart, or darling wife,
The one of all loved best.”

The most notable Psi Upsilon reference to sweethearts, and one of our most popular songs, is “The Sweetheart Song”. It was first introduced to Psi Upsilon at the 105^th Psi Upsilon Convention hosted by the Theta Theta Chapter at the University of Washington in 1947 during the closing banquet at the Rainer Club. The authors of the song, Dale Richardson, Theta Theta ’47 and Norm Schoonover, Theta Theta ’46, led the entire Theta Theta chapter in a choral arrangement of the song they had written. Based on the celebrated tune of the U.S. Naval Academy, “Navy Blue & Gold” this song quickly caught on in the fraternity. According to chapter reports from the Diamond it especially became popular with the Zeta Zeta Chapter at the University of British Columbia who in the 1960’s made it a regular entry into their campus wide songfest and would perform it for their dates at their formals.

“I’ve seen the golden sunset rays
blend with the twilight hue
And watched the searching midnight moon
above the ocean blue
And yet this beauty seems to fade
compared with beauty true,
The lovelight shining in your eyes
My sweetheart of Psi U.”

Interestingly enough, it was at the following 106^th Convention in 1948 that officially authorized a “sweetheart” pin to be adopted by the fraternity. This pin is a smaller replica of our badge for the purpose of being given to a brother’s significant other. Since the Psi Upsilon Constitution allows only initiated brothers to wear the Psi Upsilon Badge, some chapters would commission local jewelers to create a smaller replica of the badge to be given, or ‘pinned’, to a brother’s significant other prior to this. This was controversial, though, and some interpreted it as a violation of the Constitution. In fact in 1950 the official sweetheart pin was removed and the convention bickered about it until the 1960’s. Today you can still order our Sweetheart pins through the fraternities website and lavalier pendants through our jeweler Herff Jones.

Today sweethearts still exist as a part of many of our Psi U chapters – sometimes there is a formal ceremony and announcements on social media accounts and it is not uncommon to see a chapter sweetheart on a composite. Many thanks to Brother’s Richardson and Schoonover for authoring such a great tune and influencing our fraternity!

In 1853 Yale University printed “Songs of Yale”, which is known as the oldest college songbook in the United States. But four years before that, also printed in New Haven, CT, Psi Upsilon printed its first songbook in 1849 – making it not only the first fraternity songbook, but also the first college songbook in the United States!

The original Psi Upsilon Songbook was a pamphlet of sixteen pages, containing no music, and only 9 songs. By 1891 the Tenth Edition of the Songbook had over 170 Psi Upsilon songs and music for each!

The nucleus of the original songbook included five songs written by Francis M. Finch, Beta ’49, (Yale), who was a judge, poet, and academic. In fact, the 1858 Yale college songbook was dedicated to Brother Finch “Whose name is inseparably connected with the music of Yale”. The most notable song from this collection, which is still sung at Psi U Conventions regularly, is “The Psi Upsilon Smoking Song”. The four other songs in the songbook have no authors attributed to them.

You can listen and download some of our songs here.

You can view or download a copy of the original songbook below.

We received a wonderful piece of memorabilia in the office last month. The granddaughter of Alfred E. Driscoll, Delta Delta ’25 (Williams College), sent us this Psi Upsilon Banner from her grandfather’s collection. It was made by “The Chicago Pennant Co.” a well known and respected brand to those who collect vintage pennants today, and the tag shows this product was made between 1924 and 1927.

Brother Driscoll had a distinguished career as a politician, attorney and businessman, most notably serving as the Governor of New Jersey from 1947-1954. When he was elected Governor in 1947 he was one of the youngest Governors in the United States at 43 years old and he became the first two-term New Jersey Governor. His most notable achievement was that as the “Father of the Turnpike” as it was under his guidance that New Jersey Turnpike was completed in 1951, and the construction of the Garden State Parkway began. From the time of their construction, these two major transportation links would transform the agrarian “Garden State” into the most densely populated state in the union. He also served as a member of the New Jersey Senate (1939-1941), was President of the Warner Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, and served as the chairman of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which he called a “labor of love” after retiring from Warner-Lambert in 1968.

He was named the “Psi Upsilon Personality of the Month” in the January 1947 edition of the Diamond which you can read below:

We would like to thank Brother Driscoll’s Granddaughter, Antoinette, and her other family members for thinking of us and donating this banner to the Archives! If you have any Psi Upsilon Memorabilia in storage and are interested in donating it please contact Executive Director Thomas Fox.

Larger than life, Col. Frank L. Howley was Deputy American Commandant when four-power cooperation broke down in Berlin. Soviet radio played cowboy music every time they mentioned ‘Howley, the Rough Rider from Texas’ (he was actually from New Jersey). 

June 17, 1945 – A commandeered Horsch Roadster rides to Berlin. Behind this luxury German car follow 120 jeeps and military vehicles; all polished to a high sheen and festooned with American flags. Among their number is a truck laden with 10,000 bottles of whiskey and wine to celebrate the liberation of the city. Leading the convoy riding in the Roadster sat General Frank L. Howley, Delta 1925 (NYU). “It was my intention,” said brother Howley, “to make this advance party a spectacular thing.”¹ As he arrived at the beleaguered city recently conquered by the Soviet Army two enormous portraits loomed down on him: Lenin and Stalin. This ominous greeting would be a sign of things to come for the coming days and years.

   In addition to being a decorated General, Frank Howley was a
brother of Psi Upsilon. Brother Howley pledged the Delta Chapter in 1921. During his time at NYU he played lacrosse, track & field, and football where he earned the nickname “Golden Toe.” ² After graduating in 1925 with a degree in Economics he established an advertising agency that found success despite America being mired in the Great Depression. Beginning in  1932 Howley was a reserve captain for the U.S. Army; in 1940 he was called to active duty. in 1941, America entered the second World War.
   Initially Howley headed the Rising Sun School of Aeronautics near Philadelphia. In 1941 he transferred to the Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas, teaching horse tactics and serving as a plans and training officer. Eventually he became executive officer of the Third Cavalry and in 1943 helped convert the unit from a horse unit to a mechanized one. This conversion included training maneuvers; during one fateful exercise Howley broke his back. During his recovery, the Army gave him a choice: go home and sit out the rest of the war, or join civil affairs. Howley chose the latter. While still recovering Howley attended military government school at Camp Custer and in Cleveland.

    As the war progressed Howley set up military government in France after D-Day. He later led the first ground party to cross the Elbe river on that fateful convoy to Berlin. While in Berlin the Soviets denied the negotiated terms with the Americans. To solve this impasse “Howlin’ Mad” Howley (as his men called him) set up billets and relief stations overnight so that the Soviets awoke to the reality of
American occupation in Berlin.

    Howley sat at the negotiation table and went on to govern Berlin. In 1950 he retired from the Army a Brigadier General and went on to be the Vice Chancellor of his alma mater, New York University. During the Cold War Howley wrote multiple books and papers on the subject of diplomacy and rivalry with the Soviet Union. His work influenced the course of history. During his life Frank Howley received the U.S. Distinguished Service Medal, the French Legion of Honor, the Croix de Guerre (with three palms), the Belgian Military Cross (first class), the U.S. Legion of Merit, and four campaign battle stars. He married Edith Howley with whom he had four children: Dennis, Delta ’58, Peter, Delta ’62, William, Delta ’63, and daughter Frances. All three of his sons attended New York University and are brothers of Psi Upsilon. He passed away in 1993 at the age of 90.⁵ ♦

1.  https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/history/americans-arrive-berlin 

2.  https://sports.nyhistory.org/tag/golden-toe/ 

3.  https://www.psiuarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/The-Diamond-of-Psi-Upsilon_June_1952.pdf

4.  https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/history/
americans-arrive-berlin 

5.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/08/13/
gen-frank-leo-howley-dies/2ecaace0-b55a-411b-be4d-87c7d95facb6/

6. Frank L. Howley, Berlin Command (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1950), foreword, 3.