Mississippi Alpha entered the forties with great momentum and strength. The leadership was unusually strong and the Chapter was the leading Greek society on the campus.

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Campus Involvement

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1940 – Wm. G. Baker was President of the YMCA, a four-year letterman on the tennis team and a member of the basketball team; David E. Crawley was on the Honor Roll, Phi Eta Sigma, and member of the baseball team; Frank M. Laney, Honor Roll, Taylor Medal in Latin, Phi Eta Sigma and Pi Kappa Pi; William Rust, President of the Engineering School and on the Honor Roll.

 

1941 – R. Brent Forman entered the Hall of Fame, and was a member of ODK; O. Duane Forman, ODK, Editor of the Rebel, Honor Roll; Thomas Hammond, Editor of The Mississippian, ODK, and Editor of the “M” Book; The House Burned

 

1942-43 – Reginald A. Gray, Editor “Rebel”; Benjamin Owen, Sports Editor of both The Mississippian and The Ole Miss; A. Jack Stacy, Editor of “Phi Chi”; G. William Noel, Captain of the tennis team. Despite the War, the new house came into being, larger and better than the first and soundly financed.

 

1944 – “The Ole Miss” was not printed due to the War. Only one man initiated on December 14, 1944.

 

1945 – Ben F. Mitchel, Colonel Rebel; Earle Ruff, President of the Engineering School and Sports Editor of The Mississippian.

 

1946-47 – Harry O. Hoffman, Manager of Student Bank; Claude Woodward, track team, M Club; William F. Winter, Editor of The Mississippian, Hall of Fame, ODK; Thomas D. Bourdeaux, Editor of The Mississippian, Hall of Fame, ODK; Shed Hill Caffey, President of the YMCA, Honor Roll, tennis team; John W. McArthur, President of Flying Rebels; Stanford Terry, President of the Inter-Fraternity Council

 

Buddy Bowen, acclaimed Southeastern’s greatest blocker of 1947. Calling signals for the championship Ole Miss Rebels of 1947 and blocking a fashion unprecedented at the University was Buddy Bowen, winner of the Jacobs Trophy for the outstanding blocker in the Southeastern Conference. Bowen quarterbacked the SEC kings through eight wins and two losses to their first conference crown, displaying a generalship and choice of deceptive maneuvers that contributed heavily to the Ole Miss success.

 

1948-49 – Stanford Terry, ODK; Overton A. Currie, President of the Veterans Club; Brinkley Morton, ODK, Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives; Fred Witty, Editor of The Law Journal.

 

Even with the War, its dislocations and interruptions, Mississippi Alpha persevered. The chapter remained strong and laid a solid foundation for further expansions and even greater records and accomplishments of the fifties and sixties.