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The all-male student body saw the creation of its athletic program in 1897, and by 1904, the basketball, football and baseball programs were a source of great pride.

Also thriving was a campus literary society, the Chrestomathics. By participating in the activities of the society, students could take their academic pursuits beyond the classroom, debating ideas and issues of the times. Officers of this society staffed the college's monthly magazine. It was the equivalent of a modern day student government group.

In 1904, there were 71 students at the college. Forty of them had grown up within the city limits of Charleston, attending the city high school, and all were from the state of South Carolina. Most had known each other from early childhood.

Tuition was $40 a year, and a dormitory room ran an additional $10 monthly. Most students lived at home with their families.

One of these students was a 19-year-old senior named Andrew Alexander Kroeg, Jr. Kroeg's father owned and operated an insurance business on Broad Street.

He possessed a leadership talent that was exact and sure. He had his mind on law school and was dedicated to his studies. He was recognized among his fellow students at the College of Charleston as "jolly, good natured, always having a good word for friend and stranger alike." He was a model gentleman with a thirst for success.

A block down the street from his father's office lived Kroeg's friend, Simon Fogarty, Jr.. Fogarty was the second of four sons of a Charleston grocer. In 1904, he was a 17-year-old junior and a stand-out athlete, earning places on the school's baseball, basketball and football teams. Fellow students regarded him as a warm friend, quick with a smile, who motivated with such intent and heart that people were quickly drawn to him.

Playing alongside Fogarty on all three college athletic teams was a 16-year-old sophomore and close childhood friend, Lawrence Harry Mixson. Indeed, some said the two were never seen apart.

"Harry" was destined to work for his father's successful seed business in Charleston. It appears that Mixson inherited his father's business sense as well, because he was commonly known for his attention to detail and his setting of goals.

He was also known for his fun-loving spirit which often provided a needed relief from the intensity of daily college life. It was this trait which bound him closest to Fogarty.

Students at the college were extremely competitive, inside and outside the classroom. Whether playing sports or debating an essay, every man tried very hard to stand out and make his personality and opinion known.

The three friends encouraged and supported each other in every endeavor, and a tight bond formed between them as they worked to achieve the highest personal levels of scholastic and extracurricular achievement. Among their goals were officer positions within the Chrestomathic Literary Society.

Three small chapters of national fraternities existed on the campus at that time, and as fall elections for the Society approached in 1904, fraternity men developed a "slate" of officer candidates from within their ranks.

Kroeg, Mixson, Fogarty, and some of their friends were not fraternity members but wanted offices, and the move angered them. With all campus fraternity men and their friends sworn to the fraternity slate, Kroeg knew it would be tough winning unless an opposition party was quickly organized.

In the course of several meetings at Mixson's home on Wentworth Street, the three men led a small campus movement to form a group called "Nu Phi," which stood for "non-fraternity." This organization of 15 men formed its own opposing slate and began campaigning.

The group adopted "the outline of a hand" as its secret symbol. Meetings of Nu Phi were advertised to members by drawing an outline of a hand on a chalkboard in a classroom. Inside the hand, the time of the meeting and the last name of the member hosting it were written.

The elections were intense. The Nu Phi's even assigned a member to kidnap those who might vote for the fraternity ticket on election day. As the group worked together, and as election day approached, they realized that they possessed the skills, desire and friendship needed to build something of lasting value.

The Nu Phi ticket did not do well in the final count. It was later discovered that several of the members of Nu Phi had been disloyal to the group and had voted for the fraternity ticket. Kroeg, in his determination to see his friends given the opportunity to influence the campus like the fraternity men, decided that the only recourse was to start a new, full-fledged fraternity.

The loyal Nu Phi's agreed to hold a meeting on December 10, 1904, at Simon's home at 90 Broad Street to found a real fraternity. Seven loyal Nu Phi's were at the meeting: Kroeg, Fogarty, Mixson, A. Pelzer Wagener, Thomas F. Mosimann, Theodore ("Teddy") Barnwell Kelley and James Fogarty, Simon's younger brother. All were friends and students at the College who had grown up together in Charleston.

Wagener was a superior scholar of Greek and Latin, much like John Heath, the founder of Phi Beta Kappa at William and Mary. Wagener would go on to teach Greek and Latin at William and Mary, and appropriately enough, it was he who recommended the letters, Pi Kappa Phi, and their secret meaning as the official new name of the group.

At that ever-important meeting on December 10, Harry Mixson wrote out the first minutes of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity in dark green ink.

Because there were so many civic and honorary organizations in the city of Charleston, a visit to a local jeweler offered a great variety of possible fraternity badges from which to choose.

Simon made a proposal for the Fraternity's pin. In his words: "...a plain, diamond-shaped block of black enamel, bearing across its short diagonal an arched raised band of gold with scrolled edges projecting beyond the body of the pin. On this band were engraved, in black enamel, the Greek letters of Pi Kappa Phi. Engraved in gold on the body of the pin, above and below the band respectively, were the figures of a star and student's lamp." Simon also designed the secret grip of Pi Kappa Phi which you will learn when you are initiated.
Kroeg naturally became the new chapter's first "archon," a term taken from the name of a chief magistrate in ancient Greece. He set to work on a constitution.

The group set quickly to recruiting more members. Although H. Klugh Purdy is pictured with the original founders in the first group picture, he did not join until February, 1905.

On December 10, 1905, Harry's mother cooked the men a special supper in her home to celebrate a successful first year as a fraternity. Today, chapters of Pi Kappa Phi celebrate "Founders Day" with a dinner or some appropriate ceremony marking the achievements of the founding fathers.

Harry and Pelzer authored the Fraternity's ritual in 1906. The two had grown up together in historic St. John's Lutheran Church. Simon added a Roman Catholic influence, and the ritual included the "ideals of Christian manhood" (although it does not exclude men of other religions).

Henry Patrick Wagener, Pelzer's younger brother, was the first Pi Kappa Phi member initiated under the Fraternity's ritual on March 24, 1906. The younger Wagener would go on to become a renowned physician.

That year, the group rejected a charter offered from another national fraternity. Although that might have been the easiest way to achieve permanence, the men chose instead to expand and create more Pi Kappa Phi chapters.

The men of Pi Kappa Phi had made many contacts at Presbyterian College in upstate Clinton, South Carolina, through sports and other activities. With those contacts, Kroeg was able to stir interest in a second chapter. On March 9, 1907, the men of "Alpha Chapter" at Charleston granted a charter for "Beta Chapter" at Presbyterian.

At the time, there was a state law banning fraternities at state-supported schools. Presbyterian and the College of Charleston did not receive state funds at that time and were the only colleges in South Carolina where fraternities openly existed.

By this time, Teddy Kelley had moved to the other side of the United States to attend the University of California, and he cultivated a group interested in Pi Kappa Phi. The men of Charleston granted a long-distance charter for "Gamma Chapter."

The Gamma Chapter truly established Pi Kappa Phi as a National Fraternity, perhaps making it the most significant charter ever granted. Gamma was also the first chapter of the Fraternity to enjoy a "house."

Kroeg, by then studying law at the College of Charleston, saw the need for the Fraternity to secure "Articles of Incorporation" to protect the Fraternity's name and existence. Accordingly, Pi Kappa Phi became legally registered in the State of South Carolina on December 23, 1907.

The interest in Pi Kappa Phi within South Carolina was growing despite laws and policies banning fraternities. In 1909, Delta Chapter at Furman University formed and operated "sub rosa" (in secret) until state laws changed, allowing fraternal organizations.

The Fraternity created its first coat of arms in the same year. It originally had only two stars, and a student's lamp appeared below the chevron. Instead of a lamp and book, the original crest was a hand, holding a red rose (perhaps in recognition of Delta Chapter operating sub rosa). The first motto was the Latin: "Nil Separ Abit," meaning "Nothing Shall Separate Us."

The coat of arms changed many times in the early years as historical symbols of Charleston were incorporated. The coat of arms we enjoy now is much different from the original. A third star and the swords were added, first turned downward, later upward. The lamp was moved to the crest and the motto was changed to Greek: "OUDEN DIASPASEI HMAS," meaning, "Nothing Shall Ever Tear Us Asunder."