Greek Week: a celebration of the traditions, hard work and philanthropy that organizations of the Greek System participate in throughout the year. But how did it start?

While many Greek organizations got their starts in the late 1800s, the Greek system came to Eastern in the mid-1940s and 1950s.

The first official Greek Week was in February of 1954, but many of the events predate the inception of Greek Week. Three sororities and five fraternities participated in the second-ever Greek Week, according to the Feb. 16, 1955, Eastern State News article.

Dean Harwood, the director of Fraternity and Sorority Programs, said prior to fraternities and sororities coming to campus, there were often contests similar to Greek Week, but between the student year levels instead. This is the case with Tugs.

“Tugs predate the Greek system on campus,” he said. “It was often a competition between the classes and has been on campus for a long time.”

Greek Sing was established in 1951 and joined the official Greek Week events in 1954. Throughout the years, Greek Sing has occurred during different parts of the celebration.

In its origin, this event was often the opening event, in the 1980s it was used as a closing event. This year, the event will take place toward the beginning of the Greek Week at 1 p.m. on April 1.

Besides the changing of the scheduling and types of competitions as a part of Greek Week, the participants have also changed. In 1991, Greek Week participants were all members of historically white organizations.

Ceci Brinker, the director of the Student Life Office, has been a member of the Eastern community for more than 20 years and influential making this demographic change occur.

“It is a way to strengthen and unify the (National Pan-Hellenic Council) groups because they are so often pitted against one another,” Brinker said in an April 9, 1991, article in The Daily Eastern News.

A few other things that have changed are both the timing of the event in its entirety as well as the press coverage.

When Greek Week started in 1954, it was scheduled in February. This changed in the early 1960s, when the first event scheduled in April was in 1961.

“On a campus with a football team and where football is so big, it wouldn’t have made sense to do it in the fall,” Harwood said.

The Daily Eastern News and its earlier incarnations have always written about the events, but the first special “Greek Week” edition was in 1985.

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].