Chartered on September 18th, 1884, the Tau Chapter of Kappa Sigma Fraternity began as one of the first three fraternities on the University of Texas campus. The original house on West Nineteenth Street (now MLK) was the first fraternity house built west of the Mississippi River. Kappa Sigma occupied this location in the heart of campus for nearly seventy years, until relocating to west campus on San Gabriel in 1972, and finally to 1002 W. 26th Street in 1996, where the Kappa Sig house stands today.

The National fraternity of Kappa Sigma was founded at the University of Virginia in 1869, about five centuries after the society’s traditional founding in Europe. The Tau chapter initiated the 200,000th member of Kappa Sigma in 1997. Kappa Sigma was the first southern fraternity to extend a chapter north of the Mason Dixie line, and today there are nearly 200 chapters at major universities and small colleges spread across the United States and Canada.

Since its inception, the Tau Chapter has consistently held members that excel in all the facets of life, during and following their time at the University. A fine tradition of academic and athletic achievement and, above all, brotherhood sustains the fraternity and is manifested in each new pledge class. The Chapter strives for scholastic excellence, with the active members majoring in everything from Government to Engineering to Plan II and Business Honors. Members are eager to participate in a variety of intramural sports every year. Dr. Denton A. Cooley (’38) and Robert Whilden (’52) are inductees into the Longhorn Sports Hall of Honor, topping a list of varsity letterman in the chapter that extends into the present.

A fun-filled social calendar, culminating in the annual Texas Independence week celebrations, ensures that a Kappa Sig’s years at UT will truly be the proverbial “time of his life”; however, the day-to-day interaction with the brothers at meals, meetings, sports events, and down time at the house proves to be just as enjoyable.

Becoming a Kappa Sig hardly precludes a student from becoming involved elsewhere on cam