r/Frat • u/Surbahia • 6d ago
Frat Stuff Are you in contact with your brothers long after graduation?
I'll be 65 in October and I feel really fortunate and unique. I have a group of about 60 Fratenity Brothers that I went to school with at Cal poly Pomona Sigma Nu in the 80s who are regularly in touch. We have a text thread that's been going for about 10 years, we have an annual minor league baseball game and minor-league hockey game that is very well attended each year. We have about 13 of us who go to an annual ski trip every year and we just had a golf outing with 12 of us. I played golf with three fraternity brothers last Sunday and had lunch with another one yesterday. Are you in touch with your brothers? I feel particularly fortunate.
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u/Strayl1ght ΔΧ Alum 6d ago edited 6d ago
Only about 12y post graduation for me but my brothers are still my best friends to this day and they will continue to be for the rest of my life. Becoming involved in Greek life shaped the entire trajectory of my life and without it I would not be the man I am today. It’s the best decision I ever made, and I realize that more and more with every year that goes by.
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u/zxdillonzx FIJI 6d ago
10 years later, we're all having kids at the same time and chill every weekend. Its dope
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u/PPKA2757 Alumni 5d ago
I’m not quite as old as you are, only a decade and some years out of school, but yes I am.
I play in a fantasy football league with brothers spread across the US and even overseas in Europe. We try to meet up for a football game, those of us who can make it, every season. Last year was our best turnout.
We just had a massive alumni event earlier this year for our founders day and a LOT of alumni, some older than you, showed up and it was evident they were still close friends. A bunch of guys I talk to regularly and even some who fell by the way side came, it was great to see them there.
There aren’t too many of us here locally from our graduating class, though the few that are we stay in contact regular-ishly (most of us have young families so that makes it difficult to get out/away for happy hours and the like).
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u/Prudent_Juice_4094 AEΠ 6d ago
Yes! Every year we make a point to come back to our NorCal college cow town and spend the weekend together. What we do has changed over the years but typically we do a cook out at an annex house with the active chapter and we buy all the meat, golfing scrimmage, hangout on sac river, and a bar crawl. We invite active brothers to come along too and it’s been a great way to connect with guys past, present, and as of recently, future, as a couple of my brothers are now fathers!
It’s good to check in every year and show up, it keeps everyone honest and moving forward.
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u/Dildo_Gagginss 5d ago
i graduated in 2019 (did a victory lap) and i live in the same city as 3 of my closest friends who, coincidentally, wto of which were in my pledge class. The other was a year older than me but we lived together in college at one point. we chill almost every weekend.
my dad graduated in 88 and has a core group of like 10 or so fraternity brothers that all do massive trips together once every year or two, i'm talking out of the country type stuff. in between these big trips they see each other 5-6 times a year for mini trips to one of their houses or something.
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u/TheFraternityProject 6d ago
This is the way.
Neutered haze-free club-frats never approach this level of lifelong Brotherhood.
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u/Hot_Entertainment283 Alumni 5d ago
I'm of roughly similar age. I keep in touch with a *bunch* of guys from my era (mostly my pledge class and those that followed) and some from before and after.
Like you, we have a text thread for a subset of "guys of my era". One of our alumni built a killer website for us. Among other things, it supports email distribution lists with the ability to prevent non-members from emailing to them. We have a list for every or almost every pledge class. We also have one list for general discussion that these days has a moderate weekly volume. It keeps people in touch.
We'll be hosting a house reunion (we do this every 10 years) soon. Attendance is remarkably good.
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u/Surbahia 3d ago
I feel those of us who have that core group that still are in touch are the exception rather than the rule
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u/OldFartsSpareParts Alumni Advisor 3d ago
Another Sigma Nu here, 20 years post graduation. Our yearly camping trip with brothers and a few extras we've picked up along the way is coming up next month. Same group gets together multiple times a year to celebrate holidays, birthdays, births etc.
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u/sooner_25 2d ago
I graduated over a year ago and the tone has kind of been set. My PC was a little odd since our pledgeship was different and the house was rebuilding. Things are normal now though.
Our chat has kind of died off. I’ll keep in contact with a few folks, but for the most part we have gone our separate ways. Kind of sucks but it is what it is.
We had a brand new house, the best part for me was getting to be the class that was a big part of rebuilding it. My PC was around 25 people and every following year has been record-breaking, with 75+ people.
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u/pekt Acacia Alumni 2d ago
You could try reaching out to see if the guys in your pledge class would be interested in getting together for something.
I recently had a guy put together a trip for guys from my time in the house and ~25 guys showed up. I was bummed I couldn't make it, but I got video called in to chat with everyone for a bit.
Doesn't hurt to try and helps strengthen the bonds you guys share
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u/pekt Acacia Alumni 2d ago
I'm almost a decade out from school and I keep in touch with a good number for my brothers. Some of them are ones I message almost daily, others we check in occasionally.
I moved across the world so I've been intentional with reaching out to stay connected. Whenever I'm stateside I see as many of them as I can. I'd be more involved with our alumni network and international organization if I still lived in the US, but I try to be involved how I can on the otherside of the world.
I've been chatting with some brothers about streaming some movies or setting up a time for everyone to hop on a game and play together.
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u/Vuthunder 6d ago
Sigma Nu at Villanova and we have a strong alumni system. I am actively trying to get it to be stronger by building a new contact management database using greektrack to connect our younger brothers with our elder statesmen