At the convention of 1879, Walter E. Dennison of Theta\u00a0chapter took up the cause of pink and blue national colors, and\u00a0through his efforts the colors of Theta chapter were adopted for the\u00a0entire fraternity. Here is a description of that occasion excerpted\u00a0from a letter written by Brother Dennison himself:<\/p>\n
When I was initiated in Theta chapter there was, and had been for\u00a0some years, in existence the very pretty custom of wearing small bows of\u00a0pink and blue in very delicate shades. These bows were made up for the\u00a0members by Beta girls and when any girl was eligible to be called a\u00a0\u201cBeta girl\u201d by reason of attentions from the brothers, it was one of her\u00a0privileges as well as a loving compliment to the fraternity to wear the\u00a0pink and blue bow, if not the badge of the member. The distinction\u00a0between the bow and the badge was considerable. A girl could wear the\u00a0bow without particularly committing herself except in a complimentary\u00a0way, but when she wore the badge it was an announcement of special\u00a0preference for the owner of the badge. Who started the custom I cannot\u00a0say, as it antedated my connection with the fraternity. Perhaps some of\u00a0the older men could tell you.<\/p>\n
We discovered our colors were used by only one other chapter of the\u00a0fraternity, namely Delta chapter at DePauw University, then known as\u00a0Indian Asbury. That was a mere coincidence of our respective chapters\u00a0having the same colors. It had occurred to me to get that convention to\u00a0adopt our colors for the General Fraternity. I had Wilcox\u2019s hearty\u00a0support and succeeded in getting the matter before the convention.\u00a0Major Willys Ransome, one of the Silver Greys, strongly opposed our\u00a0suggestion and endeavored to convince the members that royal purple or\u00a0something of that sort would be much more suitable. He suggested he\u00a0considered our choices a mark of effeminacy. When he hinted that\u00a0opinion of our selection, it fired me up to the defense of the \u201cBeta girls\u201d\u00a0and the lovely traditions that surrounded our Theta chapter colors. In\u00a0the final speech during the discussion, I succeeded in imparting this\u00a0enthusiasm to the convention and the colors were adopted with an\u00a0Hurrah!<\/p>\n
From the convention report in the Beta Theta Pi of 1879, come the\u00a0following sentences:<\/p>\n
Report of the committee on fraternity colors favored the adoption of\u00a0delicate shades of pink and blue. After some warm discussion, convention concurred in report.<\/p>\n
In another place in the same number:<\/p>\n
How about that speech of Walter E. Dennison on the subject of\u00a0fraternity colors. There are those who think it was about the neatest, and sweetest speech of the convention. It carried the point at any rate.<\/p>\n
Brother Dennison went to Cincinnati \u201cloaded\u201d to secure the\u00a0adoption of these colors, for as the motion to adopt these colors was being made, small bows of pink and blue were passed out to the\u00a0delegates. The young lady who had made the colors into bows, through which much support was gained, later became Mrs. Walter\u00a0E. Dennison.<\/p>\n
And so it was that pink and blue came to be the colors of our great\u00a0fraternity.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: This article was the result of a suggestion of Brother\u00a0Paul Nobis \u201955 to Brother Ben Graham \u201952 while at the chapter\u00a0house at the March 1999 Fraternal Fifties ceremonies. The article\u00a0was researched and abridged by Ben Graham \u201952, from \u201cThe\u00a0History of Theta Chapter of Beta\u00a0Theta Pi Fraternity,\u201d by Samuel\u00a0Raymond Thornburg \u201915. Part I\u00a0of this story was published in the\u00a0August 1999 issue of The Theta\u00a0Data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the convention of 1879, Walter E. Dennison of Theta\u00a0chapter took up the cause of pink and blue national colors, and\u00a0through his efforts the colors of Theta chapter were adopted for the\u00a0entire fraternity. Here is a description of that occasion excerpted\u00a0from a letter written by Brother Dennison himself: When I was initiated in Theta chapter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-2235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-news","category-theta-data","tag-january-2000-theta-data","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2235"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9052,"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions\/9052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetachapterbtp.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}