Phi Tau History
National History
Phi Kappa Tau was founded in the Union Literary Society Hall of Miami University’s Old Main Building in Oxford, Ohio on March 17, 1906. The four honored founders were Taylor Albert Borradaille, Clinton Dewitt Boyd, Dwight Ireneus Douglas, and William Henry Shideler. Founded as the Non-Fraternity Association to give Miami’s non-fraternity men a voice in campus political affairs, the organization changed its name to Phrenecon on March 6, 1909 because the name Non-Fraternity Association seemed too negative.
Phrenecon became “national” in 1911 when a second chapter was formed at Ohio University. Additional Phrenecon chapters were established at Ohio State University, Centre College (Danville, KY), Mount Union College (Alliance, OH) and the University of Illinois. At Miami, Phrenecon began to have difficuly retaining members by the early ‘teens. Often, men joined Phrenecon, then later dropped their membership and joined Greek-letter fraternities. In fact, the Miami chapters of Delta Tau Delta and Sigma Alpha Epsilon were founded by Phrenecon members. For that reason, the Miami Chapter of Phrenecon withdrew from the National Phrenecon and adopted the name Phi Kappa Tau on March 9, 1916. The rest of the chapters agreed to the name change in December of that year and invited Miami to return to the national organization as the Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Tau.
Local History
Phi Kappa Tau’s first Missouri chapter traces its history to the spring of 1985 when sixteen men, mostly members of the football team, formed a group interested in forming a new fraternity. After a personal visit from Executive Drirector John W. Meyerhoff, the group chose to affiliate with Phi Kappa Tau from the three national fraternities it was considering.
Over the summer, the group decided to disband, thinking the road to chartering would be too difficult. Leadership Consultant Charles T. Ball visited the campus in the first days of the fall semester and persuaded colony leaders to reconsider. Leadership Consultant Gregory J. Naso, Coe ‘82, worked extensively with the young colony as it began to develop.
The colony had a membership of fifty-three by the time of the Delta Omega charter was signed on May 2, 1987. Meyerhoff was joined in the chartering ceremonies by former Executive Director William D. Jenkins and National President Harold H. Short. Toby Timion was the charter president.