Henry Louis Gehrig was born in the Yorkville section of Manhattan in New York City, on June 19, 1903. His parents, Heinrich and Christina Gehrig, were German immigrants who’d moved to their new country just a few years before their son’s birth.

The only one of the four Gehrig children to survive infancy, Lou faced a childhood that was shaped by poverty. His father struggled to stay sober and keep a job, while his mother, a strong woman who was intent on creating a better life for her son, worked constantly, cleaning houses and cooking meals for New Yorkers, including at the Phi Delta Theta house at Columbia.

A devoted parent, Christina pushed hard for her son to get a good education and got behind her son’s athletic pursuits, which were many. From an early age, Gehrig showed himself to be a gifted athlete, excelling in both football and baseball.

After graduating from high school, Gehrig enrolled at Columbia University, where he was initiated into Phi Delta Theta on April 10, 1922, studied engineering, and played fullback on the football team. In addition, he made the school’s baseball team, pitching solidly for the club and earning the nickname Columbia Lou from adoring fans.

During the December 1922 General Convention in Kansas City, Missouri a quote “radical” change was made to the General Council. The positions of the secretary and historian were abolished and replaced with two member-at-large positions. This format of the General Council comprised of five members holding the roles of president, treasurer, reporter, and two members-at-large still exists today 100 years later.

President Will H. Hays appointed a committee in the summer of 1922 to consider the subject of the growing financial needs of the Fraternity. They brought a favorable report for an endowment fund, and the General Convention at Kansas City approved it. In appreciation of the unselfish and untiring services of Brother Walter B. Palmer, the fund was named “The Walter B. Palmer Foundation Endowment,” and it was decided to give every alumnus an opportunity of emulating the inspiring example set by him.

In the closing years of his life, Brother Palmer frequently expressed grave concern about the future welfare of Phi Delta Theta. He saw that educational institutions were undergoing remarkable changes and that these changes were reflected in changed conditions in chapter life. Whether the Fraternity would have sufficient foresight to prepare itself to cope with the new problems and gather the resources necessary to handle the enlarged affairs of increasing membership were questions Palmer discussed with Phi leaders everywhere. In his love for the brotherhood, he dreamed of tremendous growth and power for it.

Relation of Active Men and Alumni

The active chapter men are numerically a small part of any well-established fraternity. They should not be expected to carry, unassisted, the financial burdens of growing supervision and future needs. Alumni never cease to enjoy the benefits of a fraternity and gladly repay something of their undischarged obligations incurred in the days of active chapter life. These payments may be conserved in an endowment fund, with income divided among various needs, welding alumni and actives into one great chapter and holding the support of every initiate.

Uses of Fund

It was decided at Convention that the principal of the fund may be used to make loans for chapter houses to active chapters or the alumni chapter house corporations. Loans may also be made to deserving members of the Fraternity to aid them in completing their education. The income or interest from the fund may be used to pay the Fraternity’s general expenses and establish scholarships among the active chapters. In appreciation of the loyalty, devotion, and invaluable services to the Fraternity of Walter B. Palmer, from his initiation in 1873 until his death in 1920, a sum not to exceed $1,200 per annum is to be devoted to the support and welfare of his widow, and the education of his daughter.

Alumni Approve

Alumni generally approved of the idea. Many asked why the work was not undertaken long ago. Men with business training, men with a vision of what our Fraternity may be, and men with an understanding of current college conditions joined in commending the move to give the Fraternity adequate reserve funds. Andrew D. White, former president of Cornell University, once said that he could think of no wiser thing that wealthy graduates could do, in testifying kindly feeling toward their respective fraternities, than to aid in the erection and endowment of chapter houses, as good centers for college social and literary life.

How Fund Is to Be Raised

The task of raising the fund’s principal (not less than $500,000) was assigned to the traveling secretary. A survey of the field was made at once. It was discovered that there were 225 towns and cities in the United States and Canada with ten or more resident alumni, counting an aggregate membership of slightly over ten thousand. It was thought best to start the fund by getting in touch with these ten thousand alumni because of the facility in reaching them. Later, another ten thousand alumni scattered, and fewer than ten in a place would be contacted. Every living Phi would be asked to support the fund before the campaign was completed. As traveling secretary, Arthur R. Priest won over the alumni to support this endowment fund. That endowment fund exists today, although the administration of it has been divided into different categories.

Phi Delta Theta added nine strong chapters during the 1920s: Montana, Kansas State, Colorado State, Arizona, Southern Methodist, Florida, the University of California at Los Angeles, West Virginia, and Davidson. At the same time, the tradition-rich chapter at the University of Mississippi was re-established.

The Survey Commission, created in 1922, was now a working part of Phi Delta Theta’s organization. Its five members had an exciting and essential task to appraise the college scene throughout the United States and Canada and determine which institutions offered the best prospects for new chapters of the Fraternity.

Arthur R. Priest became the Fraternity’s first Executive Secretary in 1923 and brought many years of experience in university teaching and administration to the office. He believed in the fraternity as an educational force rather than a social sideline to student life.

Stressing scholarship, financial management, and group morale, he insisted that “the fraternity must always work in harmony with the college for the true ends of education . . . The future fraternity will ensure the right atmosphere in the chapter house through the presence of a refined housemother. It will ensure the right scholarship through the presence of a preceptor. It will ensure supervised finance through the organization of a group of alumni in connection with every chapter home. Each chapter will realize that it is an integral part of a general organization, and that any action permitted in its own home reflects upon every other home and on the general organization. More and more, there will be developed a national consciousness and a national pride.”

This warm-hearted Phi, dignified and genial, often reflective but never remote, held high standards for the Fraternity.

In failing health and strength, Arthur Priest retired from his duties as executive secretary early in 1937. He had been an ardent Phi for fifty-two years and sixteen years as the Fraternity’s administrative officer. Since 1921 he helped to establish fourteen new chapters and to revive five old ones. As national secretary, he unified the expanding Fraternity, encouraged scholarship, and uplifted morale.

During his busy years as executive secretary, Priest had written a Pledge Manual, compiled a Phi Delta Theta Songbook, and edited the Ninth and Tenth issues of the Fraternity Catalogue. Upon retirement, he began a historical record that would carry on the work Walter Palmer had concluded in 1906. Unfortunately, illness interfered, and death came before the end of the year. In a bequest, he left an endowment creating the annual Arthur Priest Award to the undergraduate Phi who best-combined college and chapter leadership with the teachings of The Bond. This recognition, which has gone to outstanding students for a third of a century, complements the chapter trophies.

He died in Oxford, Ohio, on December 13, 1937. At his funeral in the Miami Chapter House, the ritual ceremony was read by Dean Hoffman, President of the General Council.

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From an editorial in the May 1925 edition of The Scroll.

The Harvard Alumni Club of Phi Delta Theta takes pleasure in announcing the presentation to the Fraternity of a perpetual silver trophy to be awarded annually to the chapter attaining the highest efficiency in scholarship and all-around campus activity, based upon a system of point award.

The gift comes as the culmination of an idea originated several years ago by Brother Tom Peterson, Knox 1923, to increase competition among the chapters of the Fraternity. The Harvard Alumni Club, composed of more than fifty Phis doing graduate work at Harvard, holds monthly meetings. At this time, the brothers discuss the problems arising from time to time in the individual chapters. In this way, a splendid idea is gained of the progress the Fraternity is making. Brother George Lupton Jr., California 1922, the guiding chief this year, has ably carried on the club work.

The plan of the award was drafted with a consideration of the various college activities with respect to their importance in the majority of the colleges and universities and the light of their importance from the standpoint of the aims of the Fraternity. The Trophy Committee realizes the impossibility of determining accurately the most representative chapter in the Fraternity.

It is also admitted that any system of point awards will be open to criticism. Yet it is believed that the plan finally adopted, after several months’ study of existing conditions, will operate fairly in the majority of cases. Provisions in section nine of the plan should avoid possible discrimination.

At first blush, the plan might seem to discriminate in favor of the larger college or university chapter. Still, the committee wishes to point out that the chapter in the smaller college usually has greater possibilities for placing men on varsity teams, etc., than a chapter in a larger college.

The initial award, to be made by the General Council or by a committee of three to be appointed by it, will be announced by August 1 based on the achievements during the scholastic year 1924–25.

Score sheets and a detailed explanation of the plan are now in the bands of the chapter presidents.

The trophy is an attractive cup of Colonial design, more than sixteen inches in height, and suitably inscribed, with space for engraving the names of the winning chapters.

The committee is grateful for the cooperation of the L . G. Balfour Co., Attleboro, Massachusetts, official Fraternity jewelers, who took care of the designing and engraving.

As far as the committee has been able to ascertain, no similar competition has been held by our Fraternity since its inception. And among the other Greek-letter fraternities, the only award approaching the present one is the Cheney Efficiency Cup competition held among the chapters of Phi Gamma Delta.

The first award of the Harvard Trophy, in 1925, was to Washington Beta at Whitman College, where the chapter was “first in scholarship and strong in every line of activity.”

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The Harvard Trophy was renamed the Oxford Trophy and first presented in 2019 at the Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute in Oxford, Ohio, to commemorate the birthplace of our Fraternity and home of our General Headquarters. It recognizes the most outstanding Phi Delta Theta chapter at a large institution of over 20,000 students.

View the historical list of Harvard (Oxford) Trophy winners.

The Founders Trophy was donated by Judge William R. Bayes, Ohio Wesleyan ’01, in 1929 and is awarded to the most outstanding Phi Delta Theta chapter at a medium-sized institution.

Following the success of the introduction of the Harvard Trophy, the Fraternity realized that there were a variety and difference of conditions that exist in the colleges and universities in which there are Phi Delt chapters. It was thought best to change the method of award or to create new trophies for schools with similar conditions. The second method was chosen and so Brother Wm. R. Bayes presented a second trophy to be known as “The Founders Trophy.” The point system for the Founders Trophy trophies was exactly the same as that for the Harvard Trophy.

At the time of introduction, the Founders Trophy was open for competition among chapters located at institutions with male enrollments from 850 to 2,199.

As expressed by Executive Secretary Priest, “It is the hope of the General Fraternity that through the medium of this trophy, greater excellence may be developed in chapters and a feeling of greater unity grow in the Fraternity.”

View the historical list of Founders Trophy winners.