Road Trip 8, P. 8

Sigma Chi Golf Weekend at Penn State

May 29 to June 1, Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.

I'd been hearing good things about this golf weekend for years and finally was able to make the trip this year. It would have been sort of a long drive from San Diego but since we were already in Williamsburg, it was "only" about 350 miles. I'm really glad I made the effort because it was a great weekend!

For those of you to whom this fraternity stuff is all Greek, the photo on the left shows the Greek letters, Sigma and Chi. The other two are photos of the Sigma Chi house at Penn State. This is not the house that I lived in when I went to school here. That house was demolished in the early 1970's and this is what the former site looks like now.

Sigma Chi was founded at Miami University, Ohio, along with two other fraternities, Beta Theta Pi and Phi Delta Theta, hence the three are known as the Miami Triad.

This is Beta Theta Pi on the left and Phi Delt on the right.

Here are a couple shots of the "mall" on campus with the library at one end and College Avenue on the other. The mall is lined with Elms which are a big thing there in University Park. Read the plaque.

A bigger thing in University Park is the Nittany Lion. This is the Lion  "Shrine" and another plaque for your reading enjoyment.

Then there is the Corner Room, Old Main (sorry about the crappy photo) and the Rathskeller. Notice what it says in the window of the "Skeller. Many of my fraternity brothers have been known to stop by the 'Skeller for the occasional beverage or two.

OK, so much for preliminaries and on to GOLF!

Friday, I was lucky enough to play in a foursome with Dick Anthony (The Sage), Joe Skrovanek (Skeeter) and Bruce Karper (Moe) for the "Yellow Ball" challenge. We, or I should say, I lost our yellow ball the first time I had an opportunity to hit it, so we weren't a Yellow Ball factor but we did have a couple good shots. When you see Dick Anthony be sure to ask him about his high lob shot over a 300-foot tall tree from 80 yards onto the green hitting the pin and coming to rest a couple feet from the hole. It's true (mostly); I saw it.

Dick, Skeeter & Frank Myers

Moe and Dick in the middle of their swings. The photo on the right was taken because it was the only time all four of our drives landed on the fairway. I can only find three in the photo though. Maybe I'm standing on mine.

Skeeter, Moe and the Sage in the middle photo.

I guess I only have one photo from Friday after golf and here it is. That's Rob Ball on the left along with my Friday playing partners. I think this may have been at the 'Skeller.

Saturday, May 31, Penn State Blue Course (where they don't sell beer).

The day started off windy and wet. It was pouring down rain until just about 9 AM, tee time, when the golf gods saw fit to clear things up a little. We had some clouds and some threatening skies but no more rain.

Today I had the honor to play with Gary Prowant and Paul "Zippy" Thress, two of my pledge brothers and Bruce Balmat, a long-time friend and PSU alumnus. It was a scramble format so I wasn't stuck hitting my errant shots out of the woods all day long like on Friday.

Joe "Brute" Brystowski & John Knoll; Zip, Gary & Bruce waiting to tee off; Jack, Bruce, Zip & Gary.

We finished three over par which we thought was a very respectable score considering we had no beer. That's right, we played 18 holes without any adult beverages! I'm surprised we broke 100.

Meanwhile back at the Skeller...

Al Morgan, Steve Leuckel & Larry Frey; Paul & Bruce; Donald H. "Stoney" Biehn & Gary

Dick, Dan "Ike" Eckenrode; Skeeter and Al Morgan; Brute & Larry Frey; Al kissing Barb Vogel, Brian Vogel & John Knoll

Rob Ball & Moe; BV & the Sage

At 5 o'clock it was off to the house for the "Steak Bake" and awards ceremony.

This is the fireplace mantel in the living room of the house. As far as I know, it was the only thing salvaged from the old house except a lot of good memories and wild stories. In the old house we would occasionally, perhaps after a beer or two, see how many people could stand on that mantel. You could keep from falling off by bracing yourself with your hands against the ceiling.

Brute & Skeeter; Ike, Skeeter, Stoney, Bruce & John Knoll; Frank Myers and Mike Manning; Ike & Skeeter

Al Morgan; group shots

More group shots...

The ever-amazing Robert "Tree" Wood; Frank Myers; Rob Ball, Moe & Jim Cooper; four younger brothers and a girl (the guy in the yellow shirt is John Russo '02 - I can read the name tag when I zoom in)

The group back at the Atherton Hotel Saturday night.

Sorry guys, that's all I got. I was so busy having a great time I had a hard time remembering to take photos.

It was an amazing weekend.

Here are four great group shots from Brian & Barb Vogel!