Members of the first “unofficial” fraternity on the Illinois State University campus are celebrating their 60-year reunion this weekend.
Thirty-some guys from the El Adel house, which is believed to be the first co-op living quarters without adult supervision on campus, housed 90-some residents from 1957 through 1972.
“We were probably the first off-campus house that did not have to have an adult supervisor,” said Keith Reiger, who was one of the first groups of residents in the house. “My first year was 1958 and we had 16 guys living there.
“We did all our own cooking and cleaning. I think we were kind of the test. We didn’t know it at the time, but I think we were the test for the fraternity thing.”
Reiger, who later became a longtime Unit 5 administrator, said he paid $800 for the year for room and board and got $200 back at the end of the year.
“It was great,” he added. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I have a lot of memories from that house.
“I don’t know how we didn’t wreck the house. We took care of how we operated and how we behaved because somewhere along the line somebody said you guys are under a microscope and you can have a good time, but if you want to live here without adult supervision then you’re going to have to take care of yourself.
“Don Lambert and Don Metz were probably the instigators of it from what I’ve heard. I think it may have been a collection of guys who said, let’s see if we can do this without adult supervision. Even though we were not model citizens we were good when we needed to be good.”
The original three-story El Adel house was across the street to the north of Metcalf School where the current Student Services Building is located. The group later moved to a bigger house at the corner of Normal and Willow streets across from the Redbird Inn.
“That house was fantastic,” said former ISU baseball coach Jim Brownlee, who lived in the house before going to the service and upon his return. “I remember going to the Redbird Inn late at night to get cheeseburgers quite often.”
Reunited With Friends
The idea of a reunion has been talked about for the last 15 years, but it didn’t come to fruition until house member Rollie Mercer passed away this past year.
“Rollie was one who always wanted us to all get together, so out of tribute to him we said let’s get together and do it and get some people back while we still can,” said John McIntyre, who was a graduate assistant and helped oversee that the house ran smoothly during his stay there. McIntyre is now McLean County Board chairman.
“The university at that time was pretty strict about what went on,” added McIntyre. “Alcohol was not allowed in the house, and girls were not allowed to go past the first floor.
“We took a lot of pride in the house. We all took turns doing different chores and assignments around the house. We didn’t want our house to be closed, but I think it was more than that. I think we all wanted a decent place to live, so we all pitched in.”
"It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I couldn't have asked for a better experience."
Guests and dates were entertained in a basement recreation room; the kitchen and a pair of formal dining rooms comprised the first floor. The second floor had four bedrooms with triple bunks. Six guys shared two of the rooms and five guys shared the other two bedrooms. Showers were in the basement. The third floor was the study room where each resident had their own study carrel and there was a bedroom for the graduate assistant.
“We rarely used the study carrels,” said Mickey Prault. “We had a hired cook who prepared the dinner,” said McIntyre. “She would prepare one meal a day for us in the evening.
“We had a house manager, who was the business manager who paid bills; a food manager, who did all the shopping; and a graduate assistant, who reported to the dean to make sure the house was operating and following the rules. That was a close as we came to having adult supervision.
"We each had assignments from our house manager as to who worked in the kitchen on certain days of the week.”
Holding Court
To ensure duties were carried out, the house would hold court each week and the graduate assistant was the judge. He would sentence guys to additional duties if they failed to carry out their initial assignments.
The house was comprised mainly of athletes and recruiting members was easy, according to Gerry Sytar.
“It was more word of mouth and at the time we were probably the leading house on campus,” he said. “People wanted to come there, so it was easy to recruit. There were no fraternities at the time, so people looked to us because we were the elite group at that time. That’s why I think we have continued to be close because we were so close at the time and why we are close now.”
And with any organization there were traditions. The house would hold annual grunt (stunt) shows; Mother’s Day dinners, Dad’s Day weekend, etc. But the most famous tradition was probably the steak and bean dinner.
“Based on the grade point averages in the house, the lower half ate beans and the upper half ate steak and they were allowed to bring dates,” said Prault. “But I don’t know why anybody would have ever brought a date because the guys who ate beans would come in wearing diapers and they would be smearing beans all over themselves.”
“I represented the lower half very well,” added Brownlee. “We had some guys who were very sharp in the classroom and we had some guys who were very average.”
The El Adel House transformed into Sigma Phi Epsilon in 1972 when the Greek system arrived at ISU.
“At that time, fraternities were popping up on campus and the guys living in the house at that point didn’t feel like they could compete without being a national fraternity,” said Prault. “The members of the house at that time said they couldn’t recruit the guys they wanted to recruit unless they were a national fraternity and had a new house.”
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