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History of Kappa-Omega Zeta |
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History of Kappa-Omega Zeta |
The first literary societies at Georgetown were founded in 1839, just ten years after the college was chartered. Georgetown maintained a classical curriculum until the 1840's when a Liberal-Arts curriculum was adopted. Like at other colleges of the time, the classical curriculum may have contributed to the formation of literary societies as an outlet for "liberal" academic pursuits. It is also likely the groups were formed for social and entertainment purposes, as Georgetown was a very small, all-male college in a very small town before the advent of electrical power, automobiles, and athletics.
The two societies founded were called Tau Theta Kappa and the Ciceronian Society,
both for men as Georgetown would not admit female students until the 1880's. While the
primary activities of these two groups were literary and debate exercises, they also
provided the typical social fraternal experience for its members. Before the "invention"
of collegiate athletics, debate and oratory were the primary competitive activities of
college students, both inter-collegiate and intra-mural*. TQK and
"Cicero" developed an intense and lively rivalry, formally in the form of debates
and the size of library collections, but as well informally in social and recruitment aspects.
Of the two TQK seems to have been the most notable. In the 1850's TQK invited Jefferson Davis, future president of the rebel Confederate States of America, to campus for a debate on states rights, and made him an honorary initiate of the society. This fact was eventually forgotten until letters from Davis to TQK were discovered during the renovation of Highbaugh Hall in 1988. TQK was also listed in early versions of Baird's Manual, the encyclopedia of college fraternities, in the "Local Fraternities" section (the Ciceronians were not listed, probably because they did not use a Greek-letter name).
In the 1850's the second permanent building of the college, the Academy Building, now called Highbaugh Hall, was constructed to educate under-prepared students to enter college. The literary societies adopted the small building to store their growing libraries and to host their formal debates. Concrete plaques bearing the names and founding dates of the societies were built into the east and west entrances and still exist today. Tradition says each society entered the building only through its own doorway, especially when meeting for formal debates.
Georgetown became co-educational in the 1880's, one of the earliest colleges in Kentucky to do so. Soon afterwards the Euepian Literary Society for women was founded. The society would split into two competing societies, called Alpha and Zeta, in 1916. In the 1890's Georgetown would build a large Chapel building, though its name does not sufficiently portray its importance. Besides the chapel, the building would come to house the library, cafeteria/"student center", science laboratories, a small gym, classrooms and faculty offices. It would become known as "The Sun of the Campus," expressing its importance. Included in its design were three meeting halls, one for each of the societies (before Euepian split), into which they moved their libraries and fraternal paraphenalia upon the building's completion.
The four literary societies continued to operate as a major student activity until the mid-1920's, when student involvement shifted to new activities: inter-collegiate and intramural athletics and the development of social clubs. While Georgetown's athletic and fraternity systems officially began in the early 1900's, massive student participation in these activities wouldn't begin until the mid 1920's. Almost overnight, student interest in the literary societies disappeared. In 1924, faculty advisors suggested the four merge into one co-ed society. The decision was made to merge into two, one for men and one for women, but these two would not last long. While the literary societies were not mutually-exclusive with social clubs (many students held membership in both), when the literaries lost their social aspects to the social clubs, they also seemed to have lost their appeal.
The "death nail" for the literaries, and almost for the entire college, came near the
beginning of the Great Depression in 1930 when the Chapel building burned to the
ground. Much was lost in the
Great Chapel Fire of 1930
including most of the libraries, records,
and fraternal paraphenalia of the recently-defunct literary societies. Within a year the
college leadership would have to publically deny that the college was about to
permanently close due to the Depression, fire, decimated enrollment, and empty coffers.
The literary societies would never revive, and thus passed into history.
Before athletics, colleges competed against each other in debates. Visiting opponents would join Georgetown's team at the Scott County courthouse for knock-down-drag-outs. The winners would exit the courthouse and parade down main street waving its flag in victory.
The official school colors in the 1800's were Pink and Green and the mascot was the
Flying Parson ("Parson" is an old term for "preacher"...Georgetown was originally founded
as a college to prepare future Baptist ministers for seminary).
When the first football team organized in the 1890's, the grid-iron boys seemed to have a problem wearing pink and green uniforms, and did not think the Flying Parson was "rough enough" for football. So the team successfully petitioned the Board of Trustees to change the mascot to the Bengal Tiger, and the colors to Orange and Black.
