Phi Kappa Tau Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Phi Kappa Tau (commonly called Phi 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 Borradaile, Clinton Dewitt Boyd, Dwight Ireneus Douglass, and William Henry ShidelerFounded 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.
Notable Phi Tau's include: Leroy Chiao (Cal-Berkeley ’79, NASA astronaut), Nickolas Davatzes (St.John’s ’60, President A&E TV network), Darrall Imhoff ( Cal-Berkeley ’68, Former NBA player), William Mallory (Miami ’54, Retired Head football coach, Indiana University), Hon. Mitch McConnell (Louisville ’61, United States Senator, Commonwealth of Kentucky), Carl E. Mundy Jr. (General, Auburn ’55, Retired General, former Commandant, United States Marine Corp), Paul Newman, (Ohio ’43, actor, philanthropist, director, race car driver), Patton Oswalt (William & Mary ‘89, actor, comedian), Frank Rudy (Case Western Reserve, Inventor of Nike Air Sole), and George V. Voinovich (Ohio ’56, Senator of Ohio).