The announcement of an “open house tea” hosted by the Phi Lambda Chi sorority in 1932 made front-page headlines of the student newspaper, known then as the “Golden Gator.” In the 1930s SF State was an all-women’s teaching college, located downtown at Haight and Buchanan Streets.

Starting with the Phi Lambda Chi Sorority, the history of hazing and Greek life at SF State has changed with each decade. During the 1950s the Greeks dominated the social scene at school. In the 1960s the student activities committee did not sanction fraternities. Finally, in the 1980s the student activities committee accepted national Greek organizations at the request of students.

Initiation was not overlooked by the sisters of Bib ‘n’ Tucker in the 1950s. Sharon Healy McDonnell, a Bib ‘n’ Tucker sister, recalled having to wear flapper outfits to school during her initiation to promote the annual fashion show put on by the house.

“All of the pledges had to wear their light blue embroidered bibs to school during pledge week, “ McDonnell said in a taped interview from the special collections and archive section of the of the John Paul Leonard Library.

In the 1950s, athletes and white students dominated Greek society at SF State. According to Meredith Eliassen, the library assistant for the archive and special collections at SF State, the Greek organizations were all local chapters and few had an official off campus house.

The Bib ‘n’ Tucker sorority was founded in the 1950s at SF State to further student interest in appropriate and becoming attire and to assist in costume problems related to the College activities. Tickets to their annual fashion show, where the girls would model trendy clothing from the boutiques of North Beach, were only 25 cents.

Students would sometimes set up a runway in the middle of campus and model during the lunch hour.
The Sigma Phi Sigma fraternity used to make new pledges spend the night at Montara Beach in Half Moon Bay.

“There was definitely alcohol involved,” said Bob Ellison, class of 1959, in a taped interview from the special collections and archive section of the of the John Paul Leonard library, “Ultimately the point of that night was to get our pledge class to come together and think as a group.”

Fred Gualco, class of 1971, belonged to one of the only fraternities that had an off-campus house. The Kappa Phi Deltas were a local chapter at SF State, with a house at 154 Baker Street.

Gualco recalled dinners at the house where new pledges had to sit on the floor and eat leftovers from the brothers’ plates. At other times, new pledges were required to fill a milk carton full of urine before they could leave a party.

“We had treasure hunts in Golden Gate Park (during rush) where the clue would be on a buoy in the middle of Stowe Lake,” said Gualco, “It was nothing malicious - no one ever died.”

Most sororities at SF State in the 1950s were a social mecca for the sisters and their mothers. In modern-day sororities, mothers are not a part of the sorority’s active social circle.

“My sorority, Sigma Delta Gamma, had a Mother’s Club,” Nancy Cooper Smith said in a taped interview from the special collections and archive section of the of the John Paul Leonard library. “Our mothers would get together once a month. Every Christmas we would rent out the hall at the Lake Merced Boathouse and throw a joint party.”

The culture of the student body at SF State drastically changed in the 1960s. Clubs like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were started in response to the Vietnam War. Political protests took precedence over the Greek system.

Many students at SF State considered members of Greek society to be ‘elitists.’ The Student Affairs Committee banned national Greek organizations at SF State. The attitude of many of the students attending SF State was anti-establishmentarian.

Greek life represented the polar opposite; conforming to a universal set of rules and morals created by the individual fraternity of sorority. However, the Bib ‘n’ Tucker sorority was still popular among a certain crowd of students.

“We were the ‘in’ sorority compared to the other 3 sororities who were active when I was there,” said Kathleen Leech, who pledged Bib ‘n’ Tucker in 1967.

Leech came from Notre Dame, an all-girls Catholic high school in Belmont. She joined Bib 'n' Tuck because she was looking for a group of girls to connect with, she said in the interview. The diversity at SF State was a shock, coming from a conservative all-female high school, she added.

“Most of the girls in Bib ‘n’ Tucker back then had gone to private Catholic schools," Leech said. "The guys were clean-cut and jocks.”

Karen Hanson, class of 1967, said she had no recollection of a Greek presence at SF State while she attended.

“I remember the cool place to hang out was the Poetry Center,” Hanson said. “The school had military units that we called the tubs. You would go there in between classes to hang out and drink coffee.”

The overall climate on campus in the late 1960s was a tumultuous one, full of anti-war protests and police breaking up riots. On November 6, 1968 the longest student strike in American history began. The Black Student Union and the Third World Liberation Front were fighting for racial equality and social change on campus.

Gualco recalls leaving campus at lunch. Most of his afternoon classes would be cancelled because of the strike. Gualco said fraternity life did not receive a lot of attention from student activity organizations on campus.

“It was quite a time, life at campus was similar to (U.C.) Berkeley,” said Gualco. “Guys from out of town joined our fraternity for a social life.”

Throughout the turbulent existence of various student organizations at SF State one bond has remained strong – that of sisterhood and brotherhood.

Leech is still in close contact with her Bib ‘n’ Tucker sisters, she said. They take an annual trip to Lake Tahoe each year to celebrate the sorority.

Fred Gualco is now a detective for the Daly City Police Department. He is still close with many of his fraternity brothers, he said, and still fondly remembers his years as a Kappa Phi Delta brother.