The Archives of Phi Kappa Psi

PUBL 2012-01

When Phi Kappa Psi Chose New Colors and a New Flower
Cardinal Red and Hunter Green have been our colors for nearly a century, but before that for
many years our national colors were pink and lavender. The story of the campaign for the change, after years of controversy over whether to keep pink and lavender, ends at the Thirtieth Grand Arch Council which met in Detroit from June 12-15, 1918, nearly five months before World War I ended. It was held under the auspices of the Detroit Alumni Association and was described in the Centennial History of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity (Vol. 2, page 254) as a small, serious business convention. The dominant note was patriotism, and there was a firm determination to keep the Fraternity and all its chapters alive in spite of serious conditions. Much of the legislation enacted might have been term war measures to meet the emergencies. The official attendance was only 170, the smallest in many years, but only two chapters failed to send delegates. With a minimum program of entertainment and with the serious attitude of those attending, the Detroit Grand Arch Council accomplished a great deal of constructive work, including the change of the fraternity colors and the fraternity flower. For many years there had been so much sentiment connected with the pink and lavender, and with the pink and lavender sweet pea that at

The Sweet Pea flower a normal Grand Arch Council it might easily have been impossible to override and overcome the tremendous amount of affection and sentiment connected with the old colors and the flower. Since the representatives of the Fraternity had placed pink and lavender sweet peas upon the casket of Charles P. T. Moore, and with the tradition of nearly fifty years of the pink and lavender colors, the old-time Phi Psi had felt that it would no longer be the same Fraternity if a change was made. Everyone had recognized the practical difficulties that the old colors presented, but there were few members of the Old Guard who took the attitude of Dr. Henry T. Scudder, N.Y. Gamma 73, For many years he had been advocating and campaigning for a change to a more practical combination, and finally at (over)

Detroit with alumni attendance at a minimum, the opportunity presented itself. Dr. Scudder was appointed chairman of a special committee, with the five Archons as the other members, to consider the question of a change and to report to the GAC. This committee unanimously recommended that the colors be changed to deep red, dark green, and black, the black to be always used as a background. The Centennial History then quoted from the committees report as follows: That the flower be a deep red (Jacqueminot) rose. That the hatband be in colors same as above, in the following order: black and then red stripe, green and black. That the flag be 6 by 8 1/2 feet, colors to run diagonally from upper corner black, then red 6 inches wide, then green 6 inches wide, then black.

The hatband to be 2 inches wide in the following order from top, black 10/16 inch wide, deep red 5/16 inch wide, dark green 5/16 inch wide, the black 12/16 inch wide. The report was accepted by the Council, and proper constitutional amendments submitted by the Committee on Constitution and adopted, with the proportions of the color stripes on the flag to be determined by the Executive Council. Thus a question on which feeling had run high for many years and at many Grand Arch Councils was satisfactorily settled by the wartime GAC, and lovable Dr. Henry Townsend Scudder won a final victory. (The Executive Council later met and, as reported in the Centennial History (Vol. 2, page 367), modified somewhat the design of the official hatband. It was to be two inches wide, bearing three color stripes touching one another, each one-fourth of an inch wide. The center stripe to be cardinal red, the lower stripe hunter green, and the upper stripe a very light blue.)

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