Sigma Chi Initiation for Charter Members RETURN TO HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sigma Chi National was on campus at Lamar for several days prior to our actual initiation, maybe a week. I can't remember for sure. We each were given one of the founders as an assignment and then we had to give a short talk to the group. I was never good at speaking in front of a group and I don't think I did very well. Sometime during this week, we had to take an exam over the Pledge book, which we all had been studying prior to this. Maybe this came before, I'm not sure, but what I remember, it was all essay and took a while to take. I do remember that Craig Ponder made the highest grade, which was no surprise to anyone. That night we had our quest. We were sent out in 2's and one group brought back a railroad cross tie. Another group was approached by 2 girls in a convertible, who tried to pick them up. Apparently these girls were hard to resist, but Sigma Chi was more important, ha!!
The next morning we were loaded onto a bus and blind folded. Our destination: The Shamrock Hotel in Houston for our formal initiation. They led us through the kitchen and into some room where we experienced an outstanding ceremony. We were initiated jointly with Sam Houston State and we became Charter members of Lamar Epsilon Chi and Sam Houston State became charter members of Epsilon Psi. Becoming a Sigma Chi was indeed one of the outstanding memories of my life.