Dancing Turkeys and War Cameraderie: The Rich History of TKE at UW-Milwaukee

This is the first in a series exploring issues behind the headlines of the TKE scandal allegations.

More than 50 years ago, the TKE fraternity at UW-Milwaukee did more than dance around wearing turkey suits along Oakland Avenue (which the fraternity members did for years for charity) or turn up in salacious, negative national headlines about drug allegations.

The fraternity has a rich history with an alumni list that contains a former governor. When it started, TKE held themed dances and hosted events with guest speakers. Fraternity life on campus dates to the inspiration of a group of war friends who wanted to revive the brotherhood they found during World War I on a civilian campus.

The recent scandals haven’t been the first challenges faced by the fraternity, though. Another war – World War II – caused many TKE fraternities to close for a time. And the Great Depression was a challenge, too.

The UWM chapter of TKE, known as Zeta-Zeta, did not begin as such.  The chapter began as a local fraternity by the name of Beta Phi Theta, founded in 1917 at the UWM campus (known then as Milwaukee Normal school) by Winston Reineking. The local fraternity had high hopes and flourished, gaining a national charter by 1922 and establishing other chapters in Wisconsin and the Midwest.  Their early success wasn’t meant to last, as World War II caused many of the chapters to close.  By 1957, there were only two major chapters left of Beta Phi Theta.

Reineking and four of his best friends joined together to create Beta Phi Theta in hopes of bringing together the practices of comradeship and congeniality that they were being taught during World War I.

After the five young men met in the library and tossed around establishing ideas, they came up with the idea of a social fraternity. A social fraternity is fraternity that does not promote a particular profession such as how Sigma Delta Omega was formed to promote engineering.

Beta Phi Theta represented Brotherhood, Fidelity and Truthfulness and members of it were among the leaders of athletics, scholastics and the social scene. Even though Beta Phi Theta consisted of members from all angles of campus life, they were still nearly unrecognized because of their sole purpose of being a social fraternity.

The Alpha chapter of Beta Phi decided to dissolve the national chapter in April, 1957, and pursue a bid to join Tau Kappa Epsilon.

The Zeta-Zeta Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) was officially installed as a UW- Milwaukee national social fraternity at Hotel Stratford on Saturday, Jan. 11, 1958.  Greek life played a prominent position at UWM in the late 1950s as The UWM Post included a section titled “Greeks Posted” next to the “Hitchin’ Post,” engagement announcement section, in every issue. In fact, March 27, 1958, UWM held its very first Greek Week, which consisted of a weeklong social celebration for all fraternities and sororities.

Back then, the fraternity houses weren’t filled with underage drinkers or lines of underage drinkers outside of houses. Fraternities back then, including TKE, did not have houses.

Instead, these past TKE members stuck to their mission which was and still is “to
aid men in their mental, moral and social development,” TKE Communications Specialist, Danny Klopfenstein, said.

Fraternity inductees included former 1977 governor of Wisconsin, Martin “Marty” Schreiber. Schreiber joined UW-Milwaukee’s TKE after transferring from Valparaiso University in 1958, his sophomore year. Schreiber was an active member of the Zeta-Zeta Chapter of TKE staring in the fall of 1958.

“I joined TKE for the opportunity to be closer to and involved in life on campus,” Schreiber said. “As I recall, fraternity life at that time was a study table at the library between classes. A ‘study’ table at the TUXEDO Bar, was on Downer, sometimes in the evening, a meeting once a month and a social event with dates maybe every other month or so.”

It was common for frats and sororities at the time to have no formal housing.  Of the eight other fraternities and nine sororities, none had housing at the time.

“I would guess that 80 percent of TKE members lived off campus and most all worked while going to school; there was no interest or concern about a ‘frat house,’” Schreiber said.

Tau Kappa Epsilon was officially installed at UW-Milwaukee in January 1958.

Fifty-six years later, Tau Kappa Epsilon was officially revoked by the university from student organizational status at UW-Milwaukee. The fraternity has had close calls in the past due to societal issues such as the Great Depression and World War II; but today, in 2014, TKE has officially been shut down due to allegations of illegal drinking, drugs, questionable behavior and alleged failure to live up to their mission.

For years, though, the TKE here was also known for helping the Hunger Task Force. For years, local media covered the story of the TKE members donning turkey costumes to dance on Oakland Avenue to collect donations to help the hungry.

When TKE started, though, Greek life was thriving on campus. There were eight fraternities at UWM. Some included Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity, Sigma Delta Omega, an engineering fraternity, and Delta Sigma Kappa.

The national umbrella group Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) was founded in 1899 at Illinois Wesleyan University.  Founded as a social fraternity, the purpose was to form strong bonds of brotherhood and foster leadership qualities in its members.  Born after an unsuccessful bid by a then-local TKE to join national fraternity Phi Delta Theta charter of Illinois Epsilon, TKE would grow to become a national fraternity with 270 active chapters.

TKE is a social fraternity or traditional fraternity. This means that there is no unifying subject, like music or athletics, required of members.  Instead, the fraternity is supposed to accept any bids for TKE as long as they have the right spirit.

Nationally, TKE has had many alumni who have gone on to be successful businessmen and politicians.  Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, was a TKE member, and active alumnus.

So in the 60s, there was no TKE house to throw ragers at; instead functions were held elsewhere like social clubs, or the Student Union.  Like the “Teke Rock Out” a fraternity sponsored dance contest found in The Post archives.

Beta Phi’s bid would be successful, and in 1958 the “Tekes” officially installed the Betas as UWM-Zeta Zeta Chapter, evidenced by an article in the UWM Post.

Similar to how Tau Kappa Epsilon started from a failed bid to join Phi Delta Theta, Beta Phi Theta’s failed attempt to grow their brand led them to become Zeta Zeta

Although UW-Milwaukee’s TKE was not always referred to as Tau Kappa Epsilon. In fact, before TKE was officially a part of UW-Milwaukee, it was known as Beta Phi Theta.

Today’s UW-Milwaukee campus was established by the consolidation of the Wisconsin State College, Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin Extension Division in Milwaukee in 1958. What stood on UW-Milwaukee’s campus before the consolidation was the Milwaukee Normal School for the Student Army Training corps.

Beta Phi Theta was born around the idea of war training camp fraternalism on a civilian campus. The creators of Beta Phi Theta wanted to expand their creation and build a national charter. In 1924, the fraternity was given a “real national charter” and expanded to universities such as the Milwaukee Normal School, Marquette University and University of Wisconsin Madison.

As the Beta Phi Theta creators began to accomplish their goal of expanding the fraternity, society got in its way. Due to the Great Depression, in the 1930s attendance rates decreased at the university and by 1942, World War II allowed for even fewer students to attend college, let alone join a fraternity.

However, in 1954 a new idea sparked and the organization began to seek out a bigger national fraternity to consolidate with Beta Phi Theta. After investigating in 1956, UW-Milwaukee’s Student Body President, Donald Rambadt, and the Grandmaster of Beta Phi Theta, Donald Smithes, were contacted by Tau Kappa Epsilon.

Tau Kappa Epsilon was immensely expanding throughout the 1950s due to its obsession of becoming the number one fraternity in the nation.

With that in mind, Beta Phi Theta petitioned to have TKE take part in campus life at the newly established UW-Milwaukee campus. In Beta Phi Theta’s petition for TKE, Smithes stated: “We believe that the ideas of Tau Kappa Epsilon and those of Beta Phi Theta are almost synonymous and for this reason we wish to associate ourselves with this particular national fraternity.”