University of Bologna, Italy. A.D. 1400

Manual Chrysoloras and five disciples meet over beefsteak and tobacco to discuss mutual protection rom the city's evil governor, Baldassare Cossa. Together, they form a secret society whose precepts were not only to protect themselves from rampant violence and thievery, but also to study the elements of a liberal education. In this time and place, students were not so fortunate as we, and they were not allowed to study just any subject that they pleased. Together these men, once strangers, form bonds of brotherhood stronger than any mere friendship, bonds that no authority, no matter how unscrupulous, could ever break.

University of Virginia in Charlottesville. December 10, 1869

Five friends met in a room at 46 East Lawn. When these men opened their meeting, they were merely friends, but when they closed the meeting, they called each other brother. The ritual and beliefs of the original founding in Bologna directly inspired their new bond, a bond further cemented by a solemn oath to which they all swore. Over four centuries since the original founding in Bologna, the American founding of Kappa Sigma had occurred.

The Kappa Sigma Fraternity has enjoyed great success since the five friends and brothers met at the University of Virginia 137 years ago. It has expanded rapidly to now consist of 188 undergraduate chapters and 38 colonies internationally. It has over 230,000 members worldwide. The Kappa Sigma Fraternity also enjoys the largest net of alumni of any fraternity in the world- over 105 chapters worldwide.

The formation of Kappa Sigma Fraternity continues, nearly six centuries after its original founding. The fraternity continually seeks new men who will carry on the rich legacy which over 230,000 brothers worldwide, a tradition developed throughout the centuries. Many freshman men go through rush looking for the house where their own values-ideals of loyalty and leadership, scholarship and service are honestly displayed. They will search no further when they find Kappa Sigma.

Kappa Sigma is a fraternity with a clear purpose and meaningful objectives. It breaks through the preconceptions that many people have about fraternities and stands out as something truly great and special. Kappa Sigma is fellowship, leadership, scholarship, and service--but above all else--it is a fraternity, a brotherhood, and the meaning of that word will never be forgotten.

Phi Chapter. April 12, 1882

Kappa Sigma came to Rhodes College in 1882 when Stephen Alonzo Jackson, Worthy Grand Master of the Fraternity, visited Clarksville, TN on business. While there he met Henry Craft and Carrington Mason, roommates at Southwestern Presbyterian University, the original Rhodes College. Their interest lead to the creation of Kappa Sigma's Phi Chapter.

In 1925 Charles E. Diehl, then President of Southwestern Presbyterian University, moved the school to Memphis and renamed it Southwestern at Memphis. The fraternity moved with the school. It was decided that the fraternity houses would be built on sites based on the order of the chapters' founding at Southwestern. Although Kappa Sigma was the fourth fraternity founded at Southwestern, its house was the first completed. The chapter house was finished in 1929.

Over the past 124 years, Phi Chapter has accompanied Rhodes College as its history has unfolded. However, the binding and paramount value of brotherhood has remained steadfast.