Local History
This chapter was first started when Mike Milinac transferred from Carroll College to Illinois State University and got together with Jeff Slain and Mike Pecoraro to form the foundation of this chapter.
The above phrase has been part of the local TKE mantra for nearly 20 years. To be honest, things are not nearly as simple as that. Starting a fraternity takes considerable work, time, and money. Restarting a chapter after a decade absence from campus is a whole other animal all together.
In the Spring of 1988, a transfer student from Mu Chapter at Carroll College in Wisconson came to Illinois State. Michael S. Milinac decided that the football team here was better than what they had at Carroll, thus the reason for the transfer to central Illinois.
Frater Milinac, or ‘Surf’ as he is affectionately called, did some investigative work and found that the TKE Chapter here was inactive. After contacting International Headquarters in Indianapolis, he was given the go ahead with getting a group of guys together to form a colony. Surf soon met Jeff Slain and Mike Pecoraro and he interested them in starting the fraternity. After rushing, networking, and lots of friendships, a group of 20 men were decided upon by Surf, Slain, and Pecoraro as being Founding Fathers of the chapter. We officially became a TKE colony on June 28, 1988.
Rush was conducted in the Circus Room in the Bone Student Center, and the first meetings were held at 205 West Willow Avenue, Apt #2. An apartment style house was rented for the 1989-1990 school year at 302 East Mulberry Street. This house easily held 20 men. It was not long before letters were put up on the house, and the Tekes were back on campus. They participated in all major philanthropies and beat the other chapters, showing the Greek System that Tekes really meant business. Athletics were a major part of the original 1960s and 1970s Tekes at ISU, and this was no exception for the current generation, as the Tekes were beating other fraternities in athletic competitions. They had booming parties and exchanges with all the popular sororities. We became an IFC colony on April 4, 1990.
On May 5, 1990, Mu-Upsilon Chapter was reactivated. The installation ritual was performed at Alpha Chapter at Illinois Wesleyan University and a reactivation celebration was held at back at the Illinois State TKE House. This was wonderful event for all and truly a culmination of years of hard work by our Founding Fathers and early pledge classes. We were chartered by the IFC on October 14, 1992.
Illinois State Tekes continued performing community service and participating in campus activities. There were a couple semesters of a low rush turn out, but we hung in there. By Fall 1993, there were 15 active members. Anticipating imminent doom if numbers did not increase, a strategic rush plan was implemented. Hard work by all the active members paid off and 12 men were rushed and eventually joined the fraternity.
The chapter hosted the visit of the Executive Secretary of TKE, T.J. Schmitz, a couple times during this period, as he came to Illinois State to give presentations to the entire Greek community during Greek Week.
In Fall 1994, Histor Zach Thompson put together a Silver 25th Anniversary Banquet at Ewing Manor in Normal to help celebrate the chapter’s history. Greetings were sent by Tekes dating back to the 1960s. Some of those Tekes attended the event, as well as alumni from the current generation of the chapter. One of the highlights was the photo albums that dated back to our founding in the 1960s as Al-Azhar. It was great fun seeing how things changed over time. It was at this time work also begun on remodeling the chapter room. Gary O’Donnell spearheaded this project and was assisted by all chapter members. New furniture was purchased, and pledge classes bought paddles to update chapter history. Our Parent ‘s Club was impressed with our accomplishments and donated a TV and VCR to the room.
In Spring 1996, Daniel ‘Rosey’ Goldrosen and Gary O’Donnell transferred to Bradley University in nearby Peoria. There they met up with a Teke from Tri-State University in Indiana. With the help of the university, they were able to rush over 20 men for their colony. Gary served as prytanis and rush chair and Rosey served as hegemon for the Beta-Alpha TKE Colony. Our chapter helped them out on a number of occasions with rushing members and ritual.
We also earned numerous awards from the International Fraternity. In Fall 1996, we won the Top TKE Chapter Award. This award was given to seven out of 300+ chapters for outstanding achievement. We also won a Beautification Award from the Town of Normal for the addition of a $2400 deck to the house. Alumnus Chris Steinmetz was project manager for the deck building, but as usual, the whole chapter stepped up with the labor to complete this enormous task. Alumni also helped out greatly with donations.
Tekefest that year was held at Spankys and held great significance for the rechartering fraters of the chapter. At the continued insistence of Histor Joseph Barta and alumnus Leroy Taylor, our Rechartering Certificate was procured. The certificate was never given to us at previous TKE Conlcaves. The chapter invited rechartering alumni back for the event, and this certificate and our Top TKE Chapter Award was given to us at that time. It was a memorable occasion for all those who worked hard to get things accomplished.
Frater David Covas had transferred from Illinois State to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Dave helped the legendary Dennis ‘Buckwheat’ Perry rush over 30 men for the Gamma Colony. Members from our chapter helped initiate these men in Champaign in December 1996. Dave was histor there for a semester before he graduated. He had been crysophylos at our chapter while he attended Illinois State.
Spring 1997 was a memorable semester for many reasons. Members were elected to key leadership positions on campus. Men in our chapter held the Student Body Vice-President, IFC President, and IFC Vice-President of Management positions. In addition, we had a number of men in the Academic Senate. We came in 2nd Place in Chi Omega Sorority’s March Madness philanthropy, which is a dance competition between fraternities and sororities.
We continued to be student leaders on campus and in the community. We held our 3rd Annual ‘Waiting for the Great Pumpkin’ Food Drive in Fall 1997. Fraternities, sororities, the University, and the community were encouraged to bring canned food to our front lawn s pumpkin patch while we ‘waited for the Great Pumpkin’ for 48 straight hours. It was a rousing success. Many boxes and bags of food were donated to the Home Sweet Home Mission. For the sixth consecutive year, we helped bag Christmas presents for underprivileged children. The Pantagraph, Bloomington-Normal s newspaper, sponsors this program. We are always excited to volunteer for this worthwhile cause.
In 1999, we celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Knights of Classic Lore and Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. A number of our chapter members and alumni attended the anniversary celebration in Bloomington, Illinois. Using modern technology, there was a satellite hook-up between Bloomington and other cities across the country so that all Tekes could be in attendance at midnight on January 10. Alumnus Leroy Taylor, who had served as a TKE Traveling Consultant after graduation, had the honor of being installed as the first ‘Knight of Apollo’ for TKE’s second century at the gala event. A KoA title is reserved for those Tekes who have served the International Fraternity for a number of years.
On that cold winter night, we not only took pause to what our 5 Founding Fathers did in 1899, but we remembered those who started Al-Azhar in 1964 and founded TKE at Illinois State in 1969, and the over 230 men who have joined since the chapter was restarted in 1988. What would the next years be like?