Origins

Origins of Phi Kappa Tau

Phi Kappa 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	William Henry Shideler

Founded as the Non-Fraternity Association to give Miami's non-fraternity men a voice in campus political affairs, the organization changed its name to Phrenocon on March 6, 1909 because the name Non-Fraternity Association seemed too negative.

Phrenocon became "national" in 1911 when a second chapter was formed at Ohio University. Additional Phrenocon chapters were established at Ohio State University, Centre College (Danville, KY), Mount Union College (Alliance, OH) and the University of Illinois. At Miami, Phrenocon began to have difficulty retaining members by the early 'teens. Often, men joined Phrenocon, 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 Phrenocon members. For that reason, the Miami Chapter of Phrenocon withdrew from the National Phrenocon 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.

Click here to read about the origins of the Gamma Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Tau.