PKT25: Rush Events
I've talked about both the fall semester rush party (or at least the Detour version I attended) and the formal breakfast. While the precise calendar of rush events varied every semester, there were a few events that turned up over and over. A good rush event usually had some combination of the following:
- A fun activity to pull people in while still making it easy for conversations to happen. Ideally the event would be interesting to both men and women, because you would not believe how many times freshman followed attractive girls over to the house and ended up joining. We had a few woman who were better and more enthusiastic about Phi Kap rush than we were.
- Food.
- Some aspect that made it hard for rushees to bail out easily. Road trips or events off campus served this purpose well.
- Having events at the house didn't help the prior point, but since the house itself was a major selling point, having events that at least ended at the house so you could get people to take a tour was always a winner.
Beyond the aforementioned rush party and formal breakfast, I recall three rush events that turned up over and over.
1- A surefire winner with a bunch of college kids who were already sick of the cafeteria food was the Pizza Taste Off. This event was also comparatively easy to run. Basically, we'd order a bunch of pizza from all nearby takeout places and open up the house. A lot of this pizza wasn't necessarily very good - there was a Little Caesar's and a Domino's very close to campus, both long since closed. Mama Santa's is in nearby Little Italy, and back then was the kind of place where you could have a large pizza and a bottle of cheap wine for $10. Pizza Taste Off probably introduced dozens of freshman to Mama Santa's while I was an active. The other locally owned place at the other end of Little Italy was (and is) Valentino's, which made the best white pizza I've ever had, but wasn't otherwise great. Those four were always represented. There may have been other pizza joints, but those are the ones I remember.
2- Nowadays there are Quaker Steak & Lube restaurants all over Cleveland, but when I was in undergrad, the closest one was the original in Sharon, PA. Hello, road trip! We'd throw a bunch of brothers and rushees into the car and drive the 90 minutes or so to Sharon. This allowed plenty of time to talk to the rushees, and the wings were certainly better than anything you could find in Cleveland at that time.
3- The best rush event, and the only one besides formal breakfast that I think we held every single semester, was Whirlyball. In Whirlyball, two teams of five players toss a wiffle ball back and forth using lacross-like scoops, with the end goal of bouncing the ball of a basketball backboard for points. Hit the net in the middle of the backboard for extra points. Oh yes, and the entire game is played while you're driving bumper cars. This sounds and is totally insane, but there's a court on the east side of Cleveland and it's a blast. We'd drive rushees out there, play as many games as we could squeeze into the allotted time frame, and then either have food at the Whirlyball place or go out to eat after. The only real downside to Whirlyball is that it was somewhat expensive to rent the court. If you've got a party and expect more than ten people, I recommend it.
Whirlyball rewards players who are light (because your car can go faster), tall (because it's easier to throw over people or block them), dexterous (because you're throwing and catching the ball in a scoop) and have some basic familiarity with basketball (because the strategy is VERY roughly similar). I am huge, short, clumsy and terrible at hoops, but I always had a good time playing. Since graduation, I've played Whirlyball a few times, and it's still a lot of fun. The best of those times was when I attended Frank's bachelor party in Chicago with Neal and Rowan. We played Whirlyball there, and for one round the PhiKaps who were present played on one team against some of the other guests. Despite the opposition being generally athletic people, we destroyed them, because we'd all played it a bunch of times and actually knew what we were doing.
In a given two week rush period we usually had at least 10 events, but I honestly don't remember any of the other ones right now. On the nights we didn't have official events we'd try to bring people back to the house to hang out, often by attending campus-wide events and talking to people there. At the time, I didn't care for rush that much. I was a lot more introverted back then and disliked meeting people, so instead of going out to talk to people, I was usually more inclined to talk to people who'd been brought back to the house and were handed off to me. The only real exception was when we ran into the rare rushee who was interested in college radio. I took a number of those folks down to the station for a tour, but I only remember one of them, Jaime, actually joining Phi Kap, and technically he was a "Friday Freshman," who were the high school seniors touring campus. We always tried to host a few of them to prime the rush pipeline, but other than Jaime I don't immediately recall any of them joining Phi Kap.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998, Fall 1998, Spring 1999, Summer 1999, Fall 1999
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading, Greek Week, Rush Events
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority, Bars, Ponding, Video Games
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings
- A fun activity to pull people in while still making it easy for conversations to happen. Ideally the event would be interesting to both men and women, because you would not believe how many times freshman followed attractive girls over to the house and ended up joining. We had a few woman who were better and more enthusiastic about Phi Kap rush than we were.
- Food.
- Some aspect that made it hard for rushees to bail out easily. Road trips or events off campus served this purpose well.
- Having events at the house didn't help the prior point, but since the house itself was a major selling point, having events that at least ended at the house so you could get people to take a tour was always a winner.
Beyond the aforementioned rush party and formal breakfast, I recall three rush events that turned up over and over.
1- A surefire winner with a bunch of college kids who were already sick of the cafeteria food was the Pizza Taste Off. This event was also comparatively easy to run. Basically, we'd order a bunch of pizza from all nearby takeout places and open up the house. A lot of this pizza wasn't necessarily very good - there was a Little Caesar's and a Domino's very close to campus, both long since closed. Mama Santa's is in nearby Little Italy, and back then was the kind of place where you could have a large pizza and a bottle of cheap wine for $10. Pizza Taste Off probably introduced dozens of freshman to Mama Santa's while I was an active. The other locally owned place at the other end of Little Italy was (and is) Valentino's, which made the best white pizza I've ever had, but wasn't otherwise great. Those four were always represented. There may have been other pizza joints, but those are the ones I remember.
2- Nowadays there are Quaker Steak & Lube restaurants all over Cleveland, but when I was in undergrad, the closest one was the original in Sharon, PA. Hello, road trip! We'd throw a bunch of brothers and rushees into the car and drive the 90 minutes or so to Sharon. This allowed plenty of time to talk to the rushees, and the wings were certainly better than anything you could find in Cleveland at that time.
3- The best rush event, and the only one besides formal breakfast that I think we held every single semester, was Whirlyball. In Whirlyball, two teams of five players toss a wiffle ball back and forth using lacross-like scoops, with the end goal of bouncing the ball of a basketball backboard for points. Hit the net in the middle of the backboard for extra points. Oh yes, and the entire game is played while you're driving bumper cars. This sounds and is totally insane, but there's a court on the east side of Cleveland and it's a blast. We'd drive rushees out there, play as many games as we could squeeze into the allotted time frame, and then either have food at the Whirlyball place or go out to eat after. The only real downside to Whirlyball is that it was somewhat expensive to rent the court. If you've got a party and expect more than ten people, I recommend it.
Whirlyball rewards players who are light (because your car can go faster), tall (because it's easier to throw over people or block them), dexterous (because you're throwing and catching the ball in a scoop) and have some basic familiarity with basketball (because the strategy is VERY roughly similar). I am huge, short, clumsy and terrible at hoops, but I always had a good time playing. Since graduation, I've played Whirlyball a few times, and it's still a lot of fun. The best of those times was when I attended Frank's bachelor party in Chicago with Neal and Rowan. We played Whirlyball there, and for one round the PhiKaps who were present played on one team against some of the other guests. Despite the opposition being generally athletic people, we destroyed them, because we'd all played it a bunch of times and actually knew what we were doing.
In a given two week rush period we usually had at least 10 events, but I honestly don't remember any of the other ones right now. On the nights we didn't have official events we'd try to bring people back to the house to hang out, often by attending campus-wide events and talking to people there. At the time, I didn't care for rush that much. I was a lot more introverted back then and disliked meeting people, so instead of going out to talk to people, I was usually more inclined to talk to people who'd been brought back to the house and were handed off to me. The only real exception was when we ran into the rare rushee who was interested in college radio. I took a number of those folks down to the station for a tour, but I only remember one of them, Jaime, actually joining Phi Kap, and technically he was a "Friday Freshman," who were the high school seniors touring campus. We always tried to host a few of them to prime the rush pipeline, but other than Jaime I don't immediately recall any of them joining Phi Kap.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998, Fall 1998, Spring 1999, Summer 1999, Fall 1999
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading, Greek Week, Rush Events
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority, Bars, Ponding, Video Games
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings