1950 - 1959
★ ★ ★
THE FIFTIES
Things began to fall back on track as the fifties began. The early and middle forties had contended with the war and the late forties had the adjustment back to civilian life.
1950 – Lawerence E. Noble, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, ODK; Curtis C. Stacy, President of the Band; Jack B. Yates, U.M. Management Association.
1951 – Things really rolled for Mississippi Alpha in ’51, it was a year of accomplishment and honors. James E. Darnell, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi; John O. Emmerich, Jr., ODK, Phi Eta Sigma, Scabbard and Blade, Pershing Rifles, Editor of The Mississippian; Ben L. Harrison, President of Scabbard and Blade, Business Manager of The Mississippian, Campus Senate; Whit B. Johnson, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, ODK, President of the College of Liberal Arts; Wm. T. McKinney, Jr., Treasurer of the Band, Treasurer of Kappa Kappa Psi and Treasurer of Phi Delta Theta; John H. Mitchell, Interfraternity Council; Fisher A. Rhymes, Editor of The Ole Miss Annual.
1952-53 – Marshall C. Ramsey, YMCA, Dance Committee, Men’s Glee Club; Robert F. Looney, Jr., President of the College of Liberal Arts, ASB Dance Committee, Chairman of Dixie Week; Jimmy Lear, Varsity Football, Colonel Reb.
1954-55 – Banks Shepherd, Editor of The Ole Miss Annual; Doug Fontaine, President of the College of Liberal Arts; Joe Durrett, Editor of The Ole Miss Annual; Harry Griffith, Editor of The Mississippi Law Journal, YMCA; Hunter Gholson, President of ODK, Hall of Fame, Editor of The Law Journal; Jack Johnson, President of American Society of Civil Engineers, Fulbright Scholar; Willis Connell, Varsity Golf; Carl Downing, Varsity Cheerleader, Campus Senate.
1956-57 – Willis Connell, Hall of Fame, Arthur R. Priest Award; Lee Davis Thames, Editor of The Ole Miss Annual; Tom Hines, President of Phi Eta Sigma, President of the College of Liberal Arts; Harry Fulcher, Vice President of Phi Eta Sigma; Ed Connell, President’s Cabinet; Bobby Philp, ODK; Joe Durrett, President of the School of Engineering, ODK; Bob Sansom, Editor of The Ole Miss Annual; Julius Collum, President of the College of Liberal Arts; Billy Fondren, Campus Senator of the Year.
1958-59 – Ed Connell, Hall of Fame, President of ODK; Lee Davis Thames, Tom Hines, Johnny Decell, Bill Hicks, Julius Collum, Harry Fulcher, Bill Fondren and Will Lewis, Jr. were all members of ODK. Football came into its own at the Phi Delta Theta house with Bobby Ray Franklin, Tommy Taylor, Warner Alford, Don Fritchie, Robert Khayat, Cary Fondren, Jimmy Hall and Kent Lovelace – all were on the varsity squad.
What a pity that we cannot list all the honors garnered by the Phi Delta of the Fifties. We can only hope to show here a brief insight into the caliber of the men and the strength of the chapter as Phi Delt traditions were handed on to the Phis of the 1960s.