The 1970s at Theta Chi

It was the best of time and the best of times! I arrived at College Park in Fall, 1972 fresh from 4 years active duty in the Navy. After immersing myself into academics my first year at College Park, in Fall, 1973, I met Ernie Stiegler in one of my classes. Ernie was then a pledge brother at Theta Chi. We struck up a friendship and found that we were both veterans and we were both a little older. He told me how much he loved the fraternity, the brotherhood - and the partying! By November, I went back to the house with him and met his roommate, Theta Chi’s 1973 Chapter President, Anton Krucky. Little did I know how prophetic being in that room was until a couple of weeks later.

Monday evening, November 19, 1973, the fire that gutted the house happened. I was busing at Alpha Z Delta (“AZD”) diagonal from the house and, with everyone else, went out to witness flames shooting up from the second-floor room I had been in just a few days earlier.  

Immediately thinking of Ernie, I ran over to the parking lot, spoke with Dave Mederer (Alpha Psi Pres. 1976) and asked about Ernie. Dave assured me he was OK and that the brothers would take care of him. With no house until Fall, 1974, 11 brothers were given a block of rooms in Ellicott Dorm and Chapter meetings were at another fraternity.

With Ernie’s persistent encouragement, I pledged in Spring 1974, along with Charlie Lady, John Getches and Gary Hall; a class of four. Ernie was my big brother. I quickly felt accepted and began friendships that lasted well beyond graduation. You could tell there were no quitters in Theta Chi with the goal clearly expressed by the leadership that renovations and repairs were quickly proceeding towards a Fall Semester reopening. At that point, the house was a serious, incomplete work in progress and a mess! We did fundraisers, including a car wash, which many sorority sisters and we both appreciated. We still managed to have a good time with lots of party!

The House reopened in August, 1974. Hell Week for us four pledges happened with an energized brotherhood in the newly rebuilt house. While that week wasn’t the most pleasant experience I ever had, I always thought it a point of pride that I was one of only four to be the first initiated in the “new” house.

Bill (“Slo”) Van Dyke reminded me that Theta Chi hosted the biggest block party ever in College Park that “Reopening/Hell week”. Both Knox Road and Princeton Ave. were blocked off, a beer truck was on DG’s lawn directly across Princeton and the ES Grit Band played on our front steps. For me it was a week of partying and working on the house, cleaning, etc. At the same time, it was a happy time of celebration! We pledges slept on the hard kitchen floor for 5 days! After that week of virtually no sleep, working like hell cleaning the house and being sufficiently harassed as part of a minority of four vs 35 brothers, I always remember the last evening of Hell Week, a Friday, with the solemnity of the occasion of joining the brotherhood. President TR Gardner simply said at the end “Brothers, welcome to the fraternity”. Within 10 minutes, we were at the Vous.

The solemnity of our initiation was confirmed by each of us receiving The Manual of Theta Chi Fraternity. Ours were even more special because they had been through and survived the fire. Attached is the front cover of my Manual and the writing on the inside cover page, attesting that it had gone through the fire. I believe the initials are Anton Krucky’s, Chapter President the year of the fire.