Rival Fraternities Band Together To Raise $30,000 For Cancer Research

StuffFratPeopleLike11 years ago

From stolen composites to slashed tires and broken glass, a fraternity rivalry is one of the defining characteristics of nearly every single house in the country. While the reasons for the feuds may vary from “those fucking chodewagons snitched on us” to “we just hate them because they’re next door,” these rivalries almost always result in public relations and risk management nightmares.

While we’ve posted countless articles about the highs and lows of dealing with a rival house, this isn’t a story about the “cum-guzzling douchebags” you end up arguing with at every sorority philanthropy event.

This isn’t a story you’ll see on The Huffington Post or The Atlantic, where bashing every aspect of Greek life is as common as finding an adorable cat GIF on BuzzFeed.

This is a story about two rival houses banding together to shove their middle fingers up the proverbial butthole of cancer.

Our tale began four years ago at Indiana University, when the brothers of Beta Theta Pi awoke in a standard, hungover Sunday daze. After a few lackluster games of NHL on Xbox, an idea dawned on the brotherhood.

A few phone calls later, the first Frat Classic hockey game between Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi was born. While the event mainly began as just another excuse for drunkenness, the $2,600 raised through ticket sales was donated to the Susan G. Komen foundation, and the two fraternities decided to make this event an annual philanthropic pursuit.

Fast forward a few years later to the 2014 Frat Classic, and you’ve got rival houses working together to raise more than $30,000 for the American Brain Tumor Association. Check out this video recap to see what we, as Greeks, can do when we combine our influence and dedication for the greater good.

The brothers of Beta and Sigma Chi cast aside their differences to help those less fortunate, and they plan to expand their joint philanthropy even further in the future. While other houses stick to smashing glass in their rivals’ courtyards, these brotherhoods realized the true essence of what makes Greek life the greatest decision a college student can make.

This is the part of Greek life that public media outlets don’t want to talk about. Yes, we enjoy getting belligerently drunk on a regular basis. Yes, we enjoy having consequence-free sex whenever we can make that magic happen. Yes, we feel that in order to gain membership into our organizations, potential new members should earn that honor and not have it handed to them freely like a little league participation trophy.

But that’s not all we are.

We are the ones who wake up at the crack of dawn–despite our desperate need for Gatorade and Advil–to host massive charity events, which aim to end cystic fibrosis, cancer, and countless other maladies that so many people suffer from.

We are the catalysts behind dance marathons and charity kickball tournaments that give a dying child a reason to smile wider than he ever has before.

Are we the only ones doing our part to make the world a better place? Of course not. But to say our organizations exist solely for mindless drinking and sex is as ignorant as claiming that your local humane society exists exclusively for the chance to kill a few puppies.

When we work together, we can move mountains. Indiana’s Beta and Sigma Chi have so gracefully shown us this. The next time you talk shit about a house that competes with your social calendar, remember these chapters. It’s always fun to band behind a common enemy, but when we unite as Greeks, we can show the world that we aren’t just a bunch of drunken degenerates–even if we are just a bunch drunken degenerates the other 95 percent of the time.