Pulling a tire in a little red wagon and trying to swallow cracked, raw eggs dropped from a rooftop is likely not many current students’ idea of fun.
But before the 1980s such antics were an unforgettable part of the Tech student experience because of the T Club, a lettermen’s group.
“It was a status symbol, I guess – ‘he’s a member of the T Club,’” said Gehrig Harris, ’66 mathematics. “You got a swagger that maybe you shouldn’t have had. I’m glad I did it for the friends and to be a part of something.”
Before fraternities were legal on campus, the club sponsored dances and concerts, and sold popcorn at home games.
Members also gave fellow students something to watch and laugh at every spring during initiation week. T Club initiates went through what would be hazing today, according to alumni.
“Some of the things we did in initiation we can talk about,” said Phil Wilbourn, ’64 civil engineering. “There are others we can’t put in print. I still can’t eat black olives.
“I’d do it again for the friendships. It’s the camaraderie that it built.”
The initiation changed slightly through the decades, but the wagons, the eggs and several other rites were constant, according to university archives and club alumni. Each new member had a sponsor who, with varying skill, shaved Ts into the initiate’s hair. They also got wooden paddles, measuring 18 inches long, three inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick.
“Every time during initiation week that you met a T Club member, you had to salute them and ask if they would sign your paddle,” Wilbourn said. “You bent over and held your ankles and they hit you. Then they’d sign your paddle.”
Wilbourn and Harris still have theirs, though the signatures are faded. One of the people who signed Wilbourn’s paddle is responsible for a crack down its length. Initiates learned to avoid crowds because the men standing with girls hit the hardest.
In another ritual, members were blindfolded, driven to isolated areas and abandoned. After walking a few miles, Sam Peaty, ’63 physical education, and another athlete fell asleep after midnight at a four-way stop. They woke to headlights bearing down on them; they would have been run over had the car not swerved.
“I think the purpose of the T Club was to build a relationship between the student body and the athletes,” said Bobby Young, ’66 business management. “I believe it worked.”
The T Club was open to athletes who lettered in their sport. The club was approved in 1921 and its first members inducted in 1924. Originally, it was open to men and women. By the early 1950s, only men could join, possibly because of cuts to women’s athletic programs.
More than a dozen men joined every spring. Membership was not obligatory but Harris said there was intense pressure to join. Wilbourn said one baseball letterman didn’t join because of protests from his girlfriend.
Harris, Peaty and Wilbourn lettered in baseball, Young in basketball. Young was on the 1962-1963 championship team whose banner hangs in Hooper Eblen Center.
Many T Club members remain friends but those who have lost touch seem able to quickly re-establish old ties. Wilbourn, Harris, Peaty and Young swapped stories as though 50 years hadn’t passed since the four had been together. All of them were often on academic probation because of the demands of balancing games, practices and schoolwork.
Some T Club members remain fixtures at Tech games, in the stands rather than on the field. Wilbourn and Harris went to Jackson, Tennessee, to cheer for the Golden Eagle baseball team in this year’s Ohio Valley Tournament.
“I think coach [Matt] Bragga has done a real good job. The baseball team is competitive every year,” Harris said. “We weren’t great; almost every year, we would win a few more games than we would lose.”
After he was commissioned through Tech’s ROTC program, Harris served in the Army for two years, one in Vietnam. He worked in banking and, later, as an FDIC bank examiner. Peaty taught in Kentucky for 35 years. Young held a variety of jobs, including working on a cow farm, owning a business and, most recently, serving as town judge.
Wilbourn and his family moved around the world for his engineering job but retired to Cookeville and reconnected with TTU. He is on the College of Engineering dean’s advisory council and the College of Business board of trustees. He also taught an ethics and professionalism in engineering course.
“There is an opportunity to give back,” Wilbourn said. “As I worked with those students, they were sitting in buildings named after Brown and Prescott. Those guys taught me so I tell the students, the names of the people who teach you today will be on buildings someday.
“Of course, if they’d told me that when I was a student, I probably wouldn’t have listened either.” V