DELTA SIGMA PHI FRATERNITY ALUMNI - SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY - OFFICIAL (UNOFFICIAL) HOMEPAGE

Group of former Sonoma State University Delta Sigma Phi members getting together at a hockey game in Stockton on Founder's Day 2005.

Delta Sig History at Sonoma State U.

EARLY YEARS

Back in 1981, when people (including teachers) still skinny dipped in the duck pond and lots of dogs (the animals too) roamed the dorm, a few young men got together to form what is believed to be THE first national fraternity on the SSU campus.   The group formed the first Sonoma Colony of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and stayed together for about two years.  The political times were still a bit too anti-fraternal and the campus too much of a commuter school to support the group and it disbanded.  In the fall of 1986 another group of young men got together in the dorms at SSU (primarily from Semllion and Tramamier for those curious) to form a frat! They were thinking Animal House. They were thinking a local frat, with sweatshirts with Greek letters, big parties and lots of women hanging out of course!

As the local frat was being formed the guys bumped into Joe Stephenson.  He saw the signs for a fraternity being formed and came to talk to us. He had been a Delta Sig back in '81 before being drafted in the 1984 major league baseball draft by the Boston Red Sox.  I assume one of the first guys ever drafted out of SSU!?  Anyway, Joe helped form the "modern" Delta Sig colony at SSU which later became the Eta Nu chapter.  In December 1986 the 9 "founding fathers" crossed into brotherhood.  The following semester the group crossed about 20 gals into the little sister program in one of the most hazed filled "little sister initiations" in the history of the world!  Those little sisters later went on to the form the Alpha Gama Delta soro at SSU a few years later.  

What was our biggest claim to fame?   Painting our Greek letters in the middle of East Cotati on a few separate occasions!?  That was great... except for the first few cars that drove across it while the paint was still drying!  "No Dean Farrell, it wasn't us... honest!"   Or was it the HUGE parties we had at houses and halls all around the Rohnert Park area!?   I am sure there are many pages that could be filled with stories from those parties.  Or was it some of our charity work!?  Giving money to the rape crisis center, the March of Dimes or being the official highway cleanup sponsor for the stretch of highway 101 through Rohnert Park for several years!?

From 1986 through 1998 (or so) the Eta Nu chapter crossed over 150 men into the bond.  The biggest, and I would say best, pledge class was the Delta Class in the fall semester of 1988.  We started with about 25 good pledges and ended up with 16 new initiates.  Nobody is sure why that rush class was so large and thus it never happened again! 

As the 90's ended and the 2000's began Delta Sigma Phi membership was dwindling in similar numbers to other Greek letter organizations on campus. SSU never had a strong Greek system without enough on-campus living to support a traditional college life and still a large number of non-traditional students who had made the school known as "Granola State" many years before. There were reports of a focus on hazing that may have been more than was necessary to create that bond of brotherhood that DSP had always been known for. One pledge class started with 10 and ended with 2 crossing the Nile. The DSP national office sent one of their high level operatives to help invigorate life into DSP and jump start it for the following fall semester. The chapter president that the national representative put into office quit before the semester started. From there things unraveled fast and national did not want further involvement at SSU. Unfortunately national let the chapter die. It takes a lot of local alumni support to keep a Greek letter organization going at SSU but unfortunately few of us remain in, or near, the Friendly City. Could there be a Sig chapter at SSU in the future? Only time will tell….

STORY TIME

Let's back up a little bit though....  Let's tell some stories shall we!?  Back in 1986 Delta Sig had 25 chapters in California.  The closest was at UCB.  One Thursday night in November of 1986 (probably a week or two after Boobs and I bought our first Beastie Boys RECORD) we headed down to Bezerkely. We were not very welcome at their party but we still drank their booze and made plans to come back, in the stealth of night, to steal some big fish (or something?) off their wall as our fearless leader (JS) assured us that was good fraternal fun. Regardless of all that, Boobs had been drinking all afternoon for some reason. I do not recall why but probably just because we were in college and that's what people did back then. So he had some old bottle of booze from his dad if I recall.  We rode down in Jeff Digg's pick-up truck. There were probably 8-10 of us in that little truck. Most of the Founding Father's, Joe and Skate Morganstern who would end up pledging the following semester.  Boobs ended up passed out in the back of the truck. Not sure if that was before or after he left part of those expensive booze on highway 101.

As mentioned above, on more than one occassion the Delta Sigma Phi Greek letters appeared on East Cotati.  They took up more than half the street around the entrance to the campus where there is now (last I checked) a Taco Bell.  The Taco Bell and that street were not there back then and thus, I am told, it was easy to sneak out there in the middle of the night, from the fields, and paint the letters.  Or remember the time someone tried to chalk the letters on a hill miles above campus, about 25 feet high, thinking we could see it from campus (we couldn't).  Or remember the time someone chalked the letters into the burm on the side of the football field!?  Or remember the time someone cut the wires at the football stadium so the coaches couldn't talk to the coaches upstairs. That was one time I was actually confident that we really hadn't committed the act in question when called into Dean Farrell's office.  Or remember how pledges had to put the DSP letters in the upper right hand corner of the chalk board at every class?  Or remember the Spike Lee/Mars Blackmon rush posters that got us in trouble?  Funny, because they really weren't meant to be offensive!  Or how about the rush t-shirts with the top 10 reasons NOT to pledge Delta Sigma Phi. I don't remember the list but I remember one of the reasons was "because you're a fag."  Class act we were!

So we drank too much, were accused of some mild vandalism but we also had some great brotherhood.  Leaving campus most days to go to lunch with some brothers.  Or the kidnap crew that went around kidnapping other active members. Or the great feeling that each pledge had when they became an active member... as they realized their innitation night was a lot more strenuous than some other, unnamed, frats at SSU.

Let's talk about our weekly frat meetings for a minute. My recollection is that they were Sunday nights. The first few years we met at a variety of houses including Fred Beng's house on Calcutta Court.   That house was in fact the Delta House for several years with as many as 6-7 guys living there at any one time. Finally Fred and Kelly got tired of their house being abused but we did appreciate all the meetings and parties you let us have there.  After that we moved our meetings to Stevenson 1002 the big audiotorium on campus.  My most clear memory is the meeting HAD to end by 9:00 as that is when Married with Children was on. It was a very popular show amongst the guys. Stevenson 1002 had TV's so it was no problem but if the meeting wasn't done by 9 I can remember several guys chanting that it was time for the Bundy's.

Now days frats are "dry" but back in the 80's they were not!  In 1986 they outlawed kegs in the dorms at SSU but drinking was allowed as long as everybody was 21. They didn't check ID's though.  Kegs were prevelant and remained in the showers and bathtubs.  Rush events were very wet with kegs, beer bongs, and the like.  In 1987 the fraternity started it's "risk management" program which included less booze and, for the first time, insurance paid by each member!   By 1988 rush events were supposed to be dry according to the DSP national. I remember one time, during rush, a national office visitor was out to help us.  He advised us to have a dry rush event which would end at 8:00 and then a "non-rush" event could start... so bring on the kegs!  It was great to have national endorsing our activities!  He indicated it was fine that essentially EVERY check in the frat checkbook went to Ernie's Liquor or Albertson's.  With national's blessings we continued....

ADD YOUR STORY HERE... (email it to me and I will add it)

Old Dudes from 1981-1982

(Add names from original Delta Sigs)

"Founding Fathers" Dec. 86:

Scott "Lucky" Barry

Fred "Gramps" Bengs

Jeff "Mikey" Diggs

Josh "Turtle" Duckworth

Dan "Boobs" Latta

Steve "Turk" Mueller

Tom "Aqua-Schmed" Myers

John "Whiner" ("My Frat") Palley

Mike "Badger" Suess

ALPHA PLEDGE CLASS (May '87)

Rob "Flounder" Bengs

Chris "Dibbs" Dietrich

Greg "Howdy" Eastom

Greg "Scarface" Korte

Ron "Hooter" Kramer

Steve "Skate" Morganstern

Shawn "Fetus" Silva

Paul "Yak" Westcott

Ted "Rambo" Wieseman

BETA PLEDGE CLASS DECEMBER '87

Kimo "Ghost" Casey

Steve "Smiley" Reinertsen

Mark "Jethro" Voss

GAMA PLEDGE CLASS MAY '88

Michael "Stork" Brossier

Matt "Barney" Cassel

Rick "Spanky" Gordon

Schuyler "Spike" Kennedy

Tim "Kim Chee" Kraus

Tony "Freddy" Krueger

Rob "Halley" Lloyd

Rob "Radar" Tinkham

DELTA PLEDGE CLASS DECEMBER '88

Jon "Prez" Campbell

Way "Padre" Yuel

EPSILON PLEDGE CLASS MAY '89

Will "Slick Willie" Amen

Maurice "Chaka" Brunt

Mike "Ex-Lax" Gandy

Shane "Beaver" Grevin

Greg Harrison

Steve "Rooster" MacDonald

Sean "Grandma" McClure aka "Rock"

Dave "Convict" Pokorney

Dennis "Linus" Sliney

Barrett "Damien" Starke

ZETA CLASS December '89

Todd "Chumley" Baldwin

Don "Arvid" Barrella

Chalermpone "Donger" Chaykamhang (aka "Moo")

Morgan "Cheese" Doran

Eric "Lurch" Dwyer

Dennis "Joker" Kotnour

Shaun "Big Daddy" McLaughlin

Owen "Schleprock" McGrath

Zac "Barbareeno" Overbay

Darren Seay

David "DJ Rice Cube" Sudo

Sean "Ponch" Sullivan

Hunter "Keebler" Van Pelt

Todd "Thor" Wilson

ETA CLASS May '90

Gary "Magic" Chang

Gary "Iggy" Gannon

Garrett "Hacker" Hill

Steve "Skeets" Jennings

Pete "Klink" Lucier

Joe "Jughead" McGuire

John "Rainman" Murphy

Kent "Weasel" Murray

THETA CLASS Dec. '90

Marlon Cobar

Scott "Fat" Earnest

David "Mouse Lee" Garcia

Forest "Spicoli" Hayes

Jasin "Buck" Howe

TJ "Hoss" Kelly

Ron "Gnat" Melton

Victor "Muggs" Mugurussa

Justin "Karch" Redmond

IOTA CLASS May '91

Anthony "Heavy D" Brown, Jr.

John "Hagar" Faiola

Mike "Sloth" Gaunt

Pete Morris

David "Doobie" Perez

Jake "Sperm" Pon

Todd "Beaker" Trujillo

KAPPA CLASS Dec. '91

Jon "Padrino" Botta

Andy "Tuk" Dickinson

Joe "Sweet Pea" Harris

Ed "Shaggy" Hirsch

Tony "Vidal" Lee

Dennis "PITA" Socher

Todd "Gonzo" Treto

LAMBDA CLASS MAY '92

Tony Cano

Aaron Chavey

Matt Cole

Adolfo Duarte

Eric Einhorn

Paul Exelby

Mike King

MU CLASS DECEMBER '92

Carter Cole

Josh Martinez

Darryl Nelson

Jason Rozakis

Josh Sleight

Scott Tipton

Marcial Ybarra

NU CLASS MAY '93

Eric Anderson

Brad Beauvais

Aaron Garcia

Sam Lando

Ray Luna

Daniel MacDonneil

Chris Rogers

Steve Stankovich

Tom Waugh

XI CLASS DECEMBER '93

Ton Byrne

Doug Archer

Jack D'Angelo

Chad Jensen

Jeff Rosenlund

OMICRON CLASS MAY '94

(need some help here....)

PI

RHO

SIGMA

TAU

UPSILON

PHI

CHIS

PSI

OMEGA

SIR!!!!

OTHER MEMBERS (Transferees, honorees, and etceee's):

Michael Ford

Michael Hansen

Ryan Hughes

Michael "The Gorilla" Iacerella

Jason "Bluto" Jaggard

Ian "Hoops" Pfeiffer

Jim Vander Putten

This is an unofficial Delta Sigma Phi web page.  Though we are alumni of DSP this page is in no way endorsed by the national fraternity.  Thanks for looking! 

Email the webmaster by typing in the word "info" and then the "@" and then palley.com.