If you read this long-form meditation, please note the “Pat Trammell story.” For me this anecdote reveals “hazing” can end instantly … if the right leader has the courage to stop it.
Once I was initiated, I never hazed a fellow fraternity member. To me, the hazing rituals were stupid and the thrill some of my fraternity brothers got from hazing underlings gave me the Heebie Jeebies.
Still, even I had to admit the program had its merits.
For example, pledges had to sign in every morning at the fraternity house and then sign-in at other times.
But having to wake up and go to the fraternity house every morning made it impossible to sleep through a morning class. And once we were up and at the house, we wanted to get out of the house as fast as we could - which meant going to class or the library.
The fraternity must have had some good leaders because our leaders always seemed to appoint the most mature and sensible members to be our pledge trainers or study hall proctors.
Thanks to mandatory nightly study halls - and the fact I never blew off any classes - I almost made the Dean’s List my first two semesters at Alabama - academic achievements that plummeted once I was no longer a pledge.
Thanks to the pledge program I learned the words to the Alabama fight song, learned valuable lessons like I should never wear grippies. (Also, I should should never wear polyester or a gold chain).
I learned to stand up when a lady came to the table and to always carry a lighter in my pocket so I could light a lady’s cigarette.
Aside: This habit later gave me one of the greatest thrills of my life.
A perk of being in a fraternity is the social chairman puts on a band party about every weekend in football season.
At one of these band parties, I went into the little bar in the basement where the beer kegs were and almost spit out my drink when I looked to my right and saw … Belinda Carlisle, the lead singer of the Go Go’s standing there.
Each fraternity has a couple of genuinely cool members and one of our supremely confident members had somehow met Miss Carlisle at the concert the Go Go’s put on a Memorial Coliseum earlier that night. He then invited her back to the fraternity house.
It just so happened when I went for a beer refill, I ended up standing next to her … and she had a cigarette in her mouth. Thanks to the Sigma Nu’s excellent pledge program, I lit Belinda Carlisle’s cigarette.
Belinda: “Thank you.”
Bill: “You’re welcome.”
Someone might ask why parents who were on the cusp of reaching upper middle class would spend so much money to cover their son’s fraternity dues.
Dad later told me this story, which I’ve also read in articles about Trammell. That is, teammates confirm this story.
As noted, Pat Trammell, the quarterback, was the undisputed leader of a football team that went undefeated and won a national championship in 1961.
In one game, I don’t know what year, Dad was in the huddle with Trammell when the P.A. announcer bellowed, “And now scores from other games.”
I don’t know what stadium this was in or what the score of the game was at the time, but this seems like something my father might have said:
Dad: “Damn. Did ya’ll hear that? Auburn just beat Tennessee.”
Pat Trammell: “Rice, get your *&^### ass out of my huddle right now!”
Even today, I can hear the radio announcer telling a million listeners, “And Bill Rice, the big tight end from Troy, is now leaving the game.”
Pat Trammell was The Man.
… For those not from Alabama, Pat Trammell graduated in 1962 with my father. He then went to medical school and became a doctor. At age 28, he died of brain cancer.
Coach Bryant says he was the greatest leader he ever coached.
… Trammell’s son, Pat Trammell, Jr, later became a Sigma Nu at Alabama. He was a fraternity brother of me and my older brother, Rush. Rush was Pat Trammell’s “Big Brother in the Sigma Nu’s.
FWIW, I never remember Pat, Jr. hazing anyone. I never did either.
My culture doesn't really have hazing (as in Official Bullying) at school or college - at least, not in my experience. I only experienced unofficial bullying by 1 or more bullies.
I wasn't a Pat Trammell by any stretch of the imagination, but I accidentally discovered that bullies are mere humans like the rest of us in junior school.
This bully (we'll call him Keith) was behind me, pushing me, and I turned around holding a lead (graphite) pencil - and it (unintentionally) inserted itself into his arm.
Well! After the adrenaline subsidied in both of us, he decided that I was better as a friend.
The moral of this story? Always carry a box of sharpened pencils around with you.
Hi Bill - Can you direct me to the URL of the post you made about how much the American Politicians have been paid by Big Pharma, from memory Harris 12.5 Million, Biden 10 Million - can't help but wonder how much the Elephant in the room will be paid over the next 4 years, by them - that is in relation to this: Covid-19 is a manmade virus, and Moderna Inc., the American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company that has made billions through the sale of an experimental Covid-19 injection, is responsible for creating it. Don’t believe us? Then read the exhaustive evidence below and check for yourself.
ModernaGate: Moderna wins Award for Deadly Covid Vaccine it was able to create prior to 2019 because “Murderna” is responsible for creating the Covid-19 Virus in a BioLab… #CTCCTCGGCGGGCACGTAG By The Exposé on April 30, 2023
Moderna's Covid-19 virus #CTCCTCGGCGGGCACGTAG may evade vaccines or the protection of natural immunity. CDC
Moderna was part of the planning and implementation of covid-19, gain-of-function experimentation, and vaccine profiteering. Here are the patents:
US9149506B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding septin-4 – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.
Inventor: Tirtha Chakraborty, Antonin de Fougerolles
US9216205B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding granulysin – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.
US9255129B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding SIAH E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 1 – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.
US9301993B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding apoptosis inducing factor 1 – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.
US9587003B2: Modified polynucleotides for the production of oncology-related proteins and peptides – 2016-02-04 Application filed by ModernaTx Inc.
Inventor: Stephane Bancel, Tirtha Chakraborty, Antonin de Fougerolles, Sayda M. Elbashir, Matthias John, Atanu Roy, Susan Whoriskey, Kristy M. Wood, Paul Hatala, Jason P. Schrum, Kenechi Ejebe, Jeff Lynn Ellsworth, Justin Guild
Learn more about this bombshell SARS-CoV-2 laboratory origin evidence at The Expose.
Lawyer Tom Renz has exposed that the COVID-19 vaccines, widely advertised as mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines, are in fact lab-created hybrids known as modRNA.
BREAKING – UK Medicine Regulator confirms COVID-19 is Man-made & the Vaccines were created using Computer Generated DNA By The Exposé on October 30, 2022
Thought you might be interested to make this "personal and directed" at the people who are directly responsible for the Covid-19 virus and vaccines which have continued to kill millions if not billions so far - got the VAERS report too if interested after vaccines released - that is a real shocker too.
Once you are hated and rejected by so many people, simply because you believe things they don’t, you lose the fear of not belonging. And then you can keep going towards not fearing anything! I know many of your readers simply and calmly said, “No, I’m not going to wear a mask, stick a Q Tip up my nose into my brain, or take your shot. Have a nice day.” Great meditation today
Also, when someone says, “We will just agree to disagree,” I say, “I don’t agree.”
I was on campus at the same time you were. I belonged to an organization (which I won't name here) that had no hazing tradition when I joined but developed one a few years later. I never took part because I thought it was stupid and obnoxious, but it was popular with certain of the senior members. It might have improved the sense of camaraderie a little, but I think it was the beginning of the end. The organization later self-destructed. Kind of sad in a way, but ultimately good riddance.
My Dad was an SAE. As I noted, the most prominent fraternity on campus (and probably the entire state). It was the very first SAE chapter in the country.
A few years after I graduated, those guys were kicked off campus ... for hazing. (They are now back ... probably still hazing, but hopefully not as bad.)
Sigma Nu had a reputation for being blond-headed pretty boys. I'm sure you upheld that handsomely. The SAEs were known as party boys and it didn't surprise anybody when they got caught.
You can see this was no shallow meditation - It was a long movie, but the out-takes would have added 30 minutes to the running time ...
***
In my recent article “The Myth of the Exploited Athlete,” I tried to make a point I think’s been ignored in the current debate about paying athletes through the NIL reform. My point was that these athletes voluntarily participated in college sports.
Nobody makes athletes sign their scholarship players. They all know they are going to be pushed to the limit in practices, workout sessions and games. In exchange for this hard work, these athletes receive a full scholarship which includes numerous extras and perks.
Many athletes also obtain lofty status. In essence, they are a member of a club that 99 percent of college students do not belong.
But the athletes are not indentured servants. On any day, they can quit.
Indeed, throughout the history of college (and high school) sports, tens of thousands of athletes decided this wasn’t for them. For whatever reason, they didn’t want to put up with a coach, the hard work, not being first string on the depth chart, or they simply wanted to be a “regular student,” etc.
***
The stories of athletes who did make this decision provides powerful source material for journalists.
In later life, athletes who didn’t quit are often proud they “stuck it out.”
If they are painfully honest, many who did leave either regret this decision or a decision they once made gnaws at them the rest of their lives … even if they went on to a happy and successful life.
Some former athletes must think:
At some point in my life, I couldn’t take the “hazing” and I quit.
Maybe they think I didn’t measure up. I didn’t pass this test. I could have also been a member of this great club or fraternity.
I might as well post everything I "meditated" about ... I think only a few people read these Reader Comments anyway. My kids can read them one day!
***
Today, I take note of car stickers that say “Proud Marine” Or “Simpre Fi” or “Vietnam Vet.” I pass cars on the highway and know that young man is a proud KA at Ole Miss.
Just about everyone likes to show off their credentials and they probably wouldn’t do this if anybody could do this. Only the few and the proud get to be Marines - and every person who became one endured a lot worse hazing than I did as a college student.
Today, of course, the Marines and service academies like West Point have cut back dramatically on hazing of recruits and plebes, which is perhaps a reform that shows Americans are becoming more sensible … but, then again, maybe there is/was some valid reason these traditions were established in the first place.
Is a world where females who can’t do 20 push-ups or sex-reassigned corporals and colonels who never get yelled at by drill sergeants actually a positive development for people whose main job is, if needed, kill other people?
I’ve been told there’s no such thing as a “former Marine.” Do Marines put those decals on their cars because they know most of the people passing their car would have washed out in two weeks?
Many people quit because something was tough. But, in some cases, it takes courage to quit. I imagine some people who quit some activity later spent the rest of their lives trying to prove they aren’t quitters.
Even Coach Bryant, whose reputation suggests he reviled “quitters,” later made comments revealing he could empathize with people who’d left his program and did not hold them in contempt.
***
The point has been made that sports don’t build character; they reveal character … which can be true.
However, the world is full of people who never played sports (or who gave up playing a sport they could have continued) who have strong and great character and became outstanding citizens and family providers without being a part of a team (or a fraternity or being in the military).
I think there is a place for some hazing, but it has to be policed by a committee of normal guys, or the sadistic closeted homos always take everything too far.
My high school sports hazing was much worse to me than my fraternity hazing. Lots of weird sexual stuff being pushed on other guys in the 80s before dudes were comfortable coming out, and if you didn't fight back, it would never stop. And I mean fight.
My fraternity's paddle exchange night was wild. The Big bro and Little bro would exchange paddles, and exchange spanks until one tapped out, truly egalitarian.
I also knew what was going on with the society hazing during covid and said "no", probably because I had been through it multiple times.
My wife and I met through the Greek system, and some of my best friends from my chapter married girls from her house. I like to joke that our college experience was like Melrose House, with ugly people.
BONUS CONTENT - MY BELINDA CARLISLE STORY ...
Once I was initiated, I never hazed a fellow fraternity member. To me, the hazing rituals were stupid and the thrill some of my fraternity brothers got from hazing underlings gave me the Heebie Jeebies.
Still, even I had to admit the program had its merits.
For example, pledges had to sign in every morning at the fraternity house and then sign-in at other times.
But having to wake up and go to the fraternity house every morning made it impossible to sleep through a morning class. And once we were up and at the house, we wanted to get out of the house as fast as we could - which meant going to class or the library.
The fraternity must have had some good leaders because our leaders always seemed to appoint the most mature and sensible members to be our pledge trainers or study hall proctors.
Thanks to mandatory nightly study halls - and the fact I never blew off any classes - I almost made the Dean’s List my first two semesters at Alabama - academic achievements that plummeted once I was no longer a pledge.
Thanks to the pledge program I learned the words to the Alabama fight song, learned valuable lessons like I should never wear grippies. (Also, I should should never wear polyester or a gold chain).
I learned to stand up when a lady came to the table and to always carry a lighter in my pocket so I could light a lady’s cigarette.
Aside: This habit later gave me one of the greatest thrills of my life.
A perk of being in a fraternity is the social chairman puts on a band party about every weekend in football season.
At one of these band parties, I went into the little bar in the basement where the beer kegs were and almost spit out my drink when I looked to my right and saw … Belinda Carlisle, the lead singer of the Go Go’s standing there.
Each fraternity has a couple of genuinely cool members and one of our supremely confident members had somehow met Miss Carlisle at the concert the Go Go’s put on a Memorial Coliseum earlier that night. He then invited her back to the fraternity house.
It just so happened when I went for a beer refill, I ended up standing next to her … and she had a cigarette in her mouth. Thanks to the Sigma Nu’s excellent pledge program, I lit Belinda Carlisle’s cigarette.
Belinda: “Thank you.”
Bill: “You’re welcome.”
Someone might ask why parents who were on the cusp of reaching upper middle class would spend so much money to cover their son’s fraternity dues.
Well, there’s your answer.
Classy, 100%
Another Pat Trammell story …
Dad later told me this story, which I’ve also read in articles about Trammell. That is, teammates confirm this story.
As noted, Pat Trammell, the quarterback, was the undisputed leader of a football team that went undefeated and won a national championship in 1961.
In one game, I don’t know what year, Dad was in the huddle with Trammell when the P.A. announcer bellowed, “And now scores from other games.”
I don’t know what stadium this was in or what the score of the game was at the time, but this seems like something my father might have said:
Dad: “Damn. Did ya’ll hear that? Auburn just beat Tennessee.”
Pat Trammell: “Rice, get your *&^### ass out of my huddle right now!”
Even today, I can hear the radio announcer telling a million listeners, “And Bill Rice, the big tight end from Troy, is now leaving the game.”
Pat Trammell was The Man.
… For those not from Alabama, Pat Trammell graduated in 1962 with my father. He then went to medical school and became a doctor. At age 28, he died of brain cancer.
Coach Bryant says he was the greatest leader he ever coached.
… Trammell’s son, Pat Trammell, Jr, later became a Sigma Nu at Alabama. He was a fraternity brother of me and my older brother, Rush. Rush was Pat Trammell’s “Big Brother in the Sigma Nu’s.
FWIW, I never remember Pat, Jr. hazing anyone. I never did either.
Was your brother’s name Rushton? Just wondering, because that was my dad’s name and it’s pretty rare.
Yes. Louis Rushton Rice. My grandmother on my Mom's side of the family was Kathryn Rushton from Andalusia before she became "Ka Ka" Chapman.
My brother Rush was the only Rush I'd ever heard of until I heard of Rush Limbaugh.
Great article, Bill!
My culture doesn't really have hazing (as in Official Bullying) at school or college - at least, not in my experience. I only experienced unofficial bullying by 1 or more bullies.
I wasn't a Pat Trammell by any stretch of the imagination, but I accidentally discovered that bullies are mere humans like the rest of us in junior school.
This bully (we'll call him Keith) was behind me, pushing me, and I turned around holding a lead (graphite) pencil - and it (unintentionally) inserted itself into his arm.
Well! After the adrenaline subsidied in both of us, he decided that I was better as a friend.
The moral of this story? Always carry a box of sharpened pencils around with you.
Hi Bill - Can you direct me to the URL of the post you made about how much the American Politicians have been paid by Big Pharma, from memory Harris 12.5 Million, Biden 10 Million - can't help but wonder how much the Elephant in the room will be paid over the next 4 years, by them - that is in relation to this: Covid-19 is a manmade virus, and Moderna Inc., the American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company that has made billions through the sale of an experimental Covid-19 injection, is responsible for creating it. Don’t believe us? Then read the exhaustive evidence below and check for yourself.
https://christine257.substack.com/p/extensive-proof-moderna-made-the
ModernaGate: Moderna wins Award for Deadly Covid Vaccine it was able to create prior to 2019 because “Murderna” is responsible for creating the Covid-19 Virus in a BioLab… #CTCCTCGGCGGGCACGTAG By The Exposé on April 30, 2023
https://christine257.substack.com/p/cctcggcgggcacgt
Moderna's Covid-19 virus #CTCCTCGGCGGGCACGTAG may evade vaccines or the protection of natural immunity. CDC
Moderna was part of the planning and implementation of covid-19, gain-of-function experimentation, and vaccine profiteering. Here are the patents:
US9149506B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding septin-4 – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.
Inventor: Tirtha Chakraborty, Antonin de Fougerolles
US9216205B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding granulysin – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.
US9255129B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding SIAH E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 1 – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.
US9301993B2: Modified polynucleotides encoding apoptosis inducing factor 1 – 2013-12-16 Application filed by Moderna Therapeutics Inc.
US9587003B2: Modified polynucleotides for the production of oncology-related proteins and peptides – 2016-02-04 Application filed by ModernaTx Inc.
Inventor: Stephane Bancel, Tirtha Chakraborty, Antonin de Fougerolles, Sayda M. Elbashir, Matthias John, Atanu Roy, Susan Whoriskey, Kristy M. Wood, Paul Hatala, Jason P. Schrum, Kenechi Ejebe, Jeff Lynn Ellsworth, Justin Guild
Learn more about this bombshell SARS-CoV-2 laboratory origin evidence at The Expose.
https://christine257.substack.com/p/moderna-patented-a-19-nucleotide
Lawyer Tom Renz has exposed that the COVID-19 vaccines, widely advertised as mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines, are in fact lab-created hybrids known as modRNA.
https://christine257.substack.com/p/massive-unintended-consequences-in
BREAKING – UK Medicine Regulator confirms COVID-19 is Man-made & the Vaccines were created using Computer Generated DNA By The Exposé on October 30, 2022
https://christine257.substack.com/p/breaking-uk-medicine-regulator-confirms
Thought you might be interested to make this "personal and directed" at the people who are directly responsible for the Covid-19 virus and vaccines which have continued to kill millions if not billions so far - got the VAERS report too if interested after vaccines released - that is a real shocker too.
Richard
Once you are hated and rejected by so many people, simply because you believe things they don’t, you lose the fear of not belonging. And then you can keep going towards not fearing anything! I know many of your readers simply and calmly said, “No, I’m not going to wear a mask, stick a Q Tip up my nose into my brain, or take your shot. Have a nice day.” Great meditation today
Also, when someone says, “We will just agree to disagree,” I say, “I don’t agree.”
Holy crap - crack me up Bill - too funny...I haven't even read it all...
BK
When I "meditate" on a subject, I really meditate ... and I left off 8 other paragraphs. Maybe I'll add some more "cutting-room floor" text later.
Never, ever wanted to be "in".
I was on campus at the same time you were. I belonged to an organization (which I won't name here) that had no hazing tradition when I joined but developed one a few years later. I never took part because I thought it was stupid and obnoxious, but it was popular with certain of the senior members. It might have improved the sense of camaraderie a little, but I think it was the beginning of the end. The organization later self-destructed. Kind of sad in a way, but ultimately good riddance.
My Dad was an SAE. As I noted, the most prominent fraternity on campus (and probably the entire state). It was the very first SAE chapter in the country.
A few years after I graduated, those guys were kicked off campus ... for hazing. (They are now back ... probably still hazing, but hopefully not as bad.)
I was there for all that. There was a cocaine issue too, as I recall.
Sigma Nu had a reputation for being blond-headed pretty boys. I'm sure you upheld that handsomely. The SAEs were known as party boys and it didn't surprise anybody when they got caught.
You can see this was no shallow meditation - It was a long movie, but the out-takes would have added 30 minutes to the running time ...
***
In my recent article “The Myth of the Exploited Athlete,” I tried to make a point I think’s been ignored in the current debate about paying athletes through the NIL reform. My point was that these athletes voluntarily participated in college sports.
Nobody makes athletes sign their scholarship players. They all know they are going to be pushed to the limit in practices, workout sessions and games. In exchange for this hard work, these athletes receive a full scholarship which includes numerous extras and perks.
Many athletes also obtain lofty status. In essence, they are a member of a club that 99 percent of college students do not belong.
But the athletes are not indentured servants. On any day, they can quit.
Indeed, throughout the history of college (and high school) sports, tens of thousands of athletes decided this wasn’t for them. For whatever reason, they didn’t want to put up with a coach, the hard work, not being first string on the depth chart, or they simply wanted to be a “regular student,” etc.
***
The stories of athletes who did make this decision provides powerful source material for journalists.
In later life, athletes who didn’t quit are often proud they “stuck it out.”
If they are painfully honest, many who did leave either regret this decision or a decision they once made gnaws at them the rest of their lives … even if they went on to a happy and successful life.
Some former athletes must think:
At some point in my life, I couldn’t take the “hazing” and I quit.
Maybe they think I didn’t measure up. I didn’t pass this test. I could have also been a member of this great club or fraternity.
I might as well post everything I "meditated" about ... I think only a few people read these Reader Comments anyway. My kids can read them one day!
***
Today, I take note of car stickers that say “Proud Marine” Or “Simpre Fi” or “Vietnam Vet.” I pass cars on the highway and know that young man is a proud KA at Ole Miss.
Just about everyone likes to show off their credentials and they probably wouldn’t do this if anybody could do this. Only the few and the proud get to be Marines - and every person who became one endured a lot worse hazing than I did as a college student.
Today, of course, the Marines and service academies like West Point have cut back dramatically on hazing of recruits and plebes, which is perhaps a reform that shows Americans are becoming more sensible … but, then again, maybe there is/was some valid reason these traditions were established in the first place.
Is a world where females who can’t do 20 push-ups or sex-reassigned corporals and colonels who never get yelled at by drill sergeants actually a positive development for people whose main job is, if needed, kill other people?
I’ve been told there’s no such thing as a “former Marine.” Do Marines put those decals on their cars because they know most of the people passing their car would have washed out in two weeks?
"The few. The proud. The Marines."
More cutting-room floor text ...
Many people quit because something was tough. But, in some cases, it takes courage to quit. I imagine some people who quit some activity later spent the rest of their lives trying to prove they aren’t quitters.
Even Coach Bryant, whose reputation suggests he reviled “quitters,” later made comments revealing he could empathize with people who’d left his program and did not hold them in contempt.
***
The point has been made that sports don’t build character; they reveal character … which can be true.
However, the world is full of people who never played sports (or who gave up playing a sport they could have continued) who have strong and great character and became outstanding citizens and family providers without being a part of a team (or a fraternity or being in the military).
Great stories Bill, and those from the Sigma Nu house really hit home!
Jeffrey was a Sigma Nu in the pledge class two or three years behind me. I bet you don't remember me hazing you, Jeffrey.
You were one of the “good guys” Bill. But I will say that while our hazing was never “dangerous” it was consistent and made for some ill moments.
I think there is a place for some hazing, but it has to be policed by a committee of normal guys, or the sadistic closeted homos always take everything too far.
My high school sports hazing was much worse to me than my fraternity hazing. Lots of weird sexual stuff being pushed on other guys in the 80s before dudes were comfortable coming out, and if you didn't fight back, it would never stop. And I mean fight.
My fraternity's paddle exchange night was wild. The Big bro and Little bro would exchange paddles, and exchange spanks until one tapped out, truly egalitarian.
I also knew what was going on with the society hazing during covid and said "no", probably because I had been through it multiple times.
My wife and I met through the Greek system, and some of my best friends from my chapter married girls from her house. I like to joke that our college experience was like Melrose House, with ugly people.
Great post! Entertaining and relatable. One of your best.