re: Largest student party in the SEC starts today

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Damn, did we do this together? We also went on probation one semester, and had bands and parties already booked. That took some subterfuge to pull off

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I have a feeling every treasurer at every fraternity in the SEC with more than 50 or 60 kids could sit around and tell similar stories for a whole weekend.

We ought to start a club.

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Would have been a lot cooler if he'd almost died without telling daddy. GTFOB

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Must feel great to almost die and ruin parties for everyone on campus. I'm sure he got a lot of get well soon cards.

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The mid-2000s were basically the end of anything remotely resembling difficult mental stress with fraeternity stuff. Most of my high school friends were at Tennessee the same time I was at Alabama and they all had similar stories as their college years got towards the end.

We still very much had sleep deprivation, forced cleaning, alcohol stuff though that was always very dependent on who was around and who the subject of the haze was, verbal abuse and all that (nothing physical). By the time I left it was basically down to wearing the same clothes and having to answer a few questions. None of it was ever really my thing (not exactly a huge ball hazer), but some of the funnier things people made me do as a pledge still stick with me. Especially stuff me and my buddies had to do as a group.

Sucks that stuff is gone, but people overdid the other stuff and earned it I guess.

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Yeah, no one got beat and I always made sure to get on to guys that were bordering on doing anything like that. It was usually guys that would never have the balls to hit someone who couldn't fight back. Nonetheless, most of pledging was mental hazing, of which never really bothered me with the a-hole coaches I had in high school. But, it brought our pledge class closer together having to go through stuff and yeah you felt like you earned something at the end and also learned who you could count on in a pinch. From what i hear today, half the fraternities have been kicked off campus and most are always on probation. Anything we did pledging is not allowed anymore. Seems like they've basically turned into sororities with what they can and can't do.

When I was older my "hazing" was limited to kids cleaning my apartment for my signature in their black book and making them do things that we, and they, though were funny. I knew I was going to friends with these guys for years, so why would I be an a-hole to them.

The University also screwed my fraternity. We had about 140-150 guys when I left. About 5 years later they threatened to pull our charter and we had to kick out almost the entire fraternity. It left them with around 30-40 guys.

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Nonetheless, most of pledging was mental hazing, of which never really bothered me with the a-hole coaches I had in high school. But, it brought our pledge class closer together having to go through stuff and yeah you felt like you earned something at the end and also learned who you could count on in a pinch

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Could not have put it into better words than this. The whole "brotherhood" and "caring about the fraternity" stuff brings out the cynic in me, but my best friends from school are the guys that I went through all that with. And when we all get together at a wedding or a birth we always end up talking about that stuff and laughing about it. The fraternity itself I really don't care about anymore, but the guys I met I do. My wife, who was in a big sorority, always talks about how close we all are and how different it is from the mini-cliques of a sorority pledge class that sometimes live on, sometimes don't.

Sucks that people pretty much miss out on that now. I don't really know what there is to gain from it at this point outside of drinking and trying to sleep with girls. Which, obviously 19 year old me loved, but 32 year old me sees as fleeting and dumb.

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There's not a chance in hell I would attend any HS reunion..but a pledge class reunion?

Every. Year.

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Yup - I mean we basically do it with whoever can make it 2-3 games a year. And it feels the same as walking back into the house for dinner on a random night Senior year.

That dude has the smallest legs in the entire picture

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My wife, who was in a big sorority, always talks about how close we all are and how different it is from the mini-cliques of a sorority pledge class that sometimes live on, sometimes don't.

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Same thing with my wife and all of our parents. They always act so surprised at how well we keep in touch and remain close. It helps that cell phones, social media, e-mail, etc exists now, but we still make a point to get together with all the guys that don't live near each other at least a couple times a year. We always go camping and rafting every summer and usually will pick one big game where we'll have a big tailgate. Obviously it's a lot tougher now that people have children and whatnot, but I do get together with guys every week or two for happy hour after work, and some of us will take summer trips to the beach with our wives and other random activities throughout the year. Fortunately, A LOT of guys I was in college with live in Nasvhille so it's pretty easy.

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It helps that cell phones, social media, e-mail, etc exists now, but we still make a point to get together with all the guys that don't live near each other at least a couple times a year. We always go camping and rafting every summer and usually will pick one big game where we'll have a big tailgate.

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Definitely agree - one of the forgotten positives of the internet age. When we all left we had a giant google group (I feel old), then that morphed into a group chat. It will be dormant for 2 months then it'll be nonstop for 4 days.

What's funny is my dad and his closest old pledge brother friends will not see each other for literally 2-3 years and then the second they all do it's like they never left (and my dad isn't a big yuck it up buddy buddy guy). It used to fascinate me as a kid.

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My sister did just graduate from LSU this past December, so it's nice always having a free place to stay down there

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We just lost ours a couple years ago (after my parents having somebody there almost consecutively since 2003) and it was a serious transition period. My dad was losing his mind

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kind of an arse, my friends hate it, but I don't even try to hide it anymore. I wore all LSU stuff to the game in Knoxville this year

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Probably a little bit easier given that Tennessee and LSU aren't really rivals at all. I had a couple and my sister had a TON of friends at Alabama that were Metro Atlanta kids and did the UGA/Bama thing. It was never a problem.......well.......before at least

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If I posted this pic about LSU you would bitch about how trashy it was.

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100%. That's because LSU looks like that every day of the year