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 | | | | History | | |
| Theta Chi Fraternity is one of the oldest and largest men's fraternities in North America today. Our past is indeed proud, reflecting a society founded by two young idealistic cadets. For 46 years, Theta Chi was but one chapter, Alpha at Norwich University. Our growth from 1902 and over the next century is a tribute to the standards, ideals, and objectives of those cadets and over 161,000 men who have followed them and taken the vows of Theta Chi Fraternity. Those ideals and standards are as attractive and as meaningful today as in 1856. Our growth and expansion demonstrate that there are many thousands of young men who join our chapters and colonies each year to share in that brotherhood. |  | | | |
Theta Chi Fraternity is a force, for today and for the future. Each man who joins our ranks contributes in many ways to the strengthening of our brotherhood, our chapters and colonies, and our traditions. | |
If our founders, Frederick Norton Freeman and Arthur Chase, could see us today, surely they would be pleased. We are the international organization they envisioned, and we have kept inviolate the ideals and concepts that they held so dear. From our ranks have come leaders in industry, the sciences, law, medicine, education, military, and government at all levels. Many thousands of our alumni have carried the tradition of the Helping Hand into their neighborhoods, places of worship, communities and local organizations, to share their leadership skills with others. |  | |
Theta Chi Fraternity exists to serve a need for young men of character, principles and ideals to associate with each other. Our chapters and colonies are laboratories for leadership. Our undergraduates grow, mature and develop through interaction with other outstanding young men. | | | |
Most importantly, our chapters and colonies provide the support for excellence that is sorely needed today on campuses. That brotherhood comes in a wide and diverse variety of shapes, sizes, forms, colors, and fashions, but it reflects the concept of the Helping Hand -- that the most important duty that we have is to assist others, especially in time of need. Young people today are in need of that support, perhaps more than ever before. Theta Chi fraternity squarely meets that need. | | | |
The brotherhood of Theta Chi Fraternity! It has spanned over 150 years and over 215 chapters, yet it remains as bright and as unique as it was in 1856. | | |
| Symbols | | |
| Badge |
| The original Theta Chi badge was designed by Egbert Phelps, assistant founder of the Fraternity, sometime before the founding date. The records show that the first badges were ordered by Freeman from a Boston jeweler on April 12, two days after the founding ... the members, by vote, decided to wear the badges in public for the first time on June 9, 1856... |  | | |
| Coat of Arms |
| Sometimes mistakenly called the crest, the Fraternity Coat of Arms is described in heraldic phraseology, as: "Or on a bend gules, a nowed serpent between two swords, points downward, pale wise, all of the first. On an Esquire's helmet the crest an eagle displayed Or". |  | | |
| Colors |
| The colors of the Fraternity are military red and white. In 1909 the Grand Chapter designated, as the standard fraternity color, the same shade of red that is used in the flag of the United States of America. | | |
| Flag |
| At the 64th Anniversary Convention, held in April of 1920 in New York City, the following specifications for a flag were adopted: "Size six feet by nine feet, made of fine wool bunting, doubled and sewed back to back, white field with 8-inch red border; Greek letters OX, coiled rattlesnake and 1856 appliquéd on both sides in fine finish felt." |  | | |
| Flower |
| The flower of Theta Chi Fraternity is the red carnation. |  |
| The Creed of Theta Chi: | | |  | | Written by Frank H. Schrenk, Kappa/Pennsylvania '12, the Creed has become an important part of our traditions and an expressive means of stating our ideals and objectives as a fraternity. | | |
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