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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!