When Stephen Simmons decided to attend Northwestern University in 2006, he knew he wanted to go Greek. His mother was a member of Delta Sigma Theta, and his father was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi; both chapters are members of the “Divine Nine,” which are the nine traditionally black Greek organizations that comprise the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Simmons grew up around Greek life and always planned on going Greek when he eventually attended college.
One problem: He was on the football team.
Involvement in athletics certainly doesn’t preclude one from joining a Greek organization. Otto Graham, the most illustrious player in Northwestern football history, was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. Drew Brees, considered by many to be the best quarterback in the National Football League, was a Sigma Chi at Purdue. Luke Donald was a member of Sigma Chi at Northwestern and is now ranked the No. 1 men’s golfer in the world. And several players currently playing for the Wildcats are involved in Greek life. Simmons, who graduated in 2010, successfully earned membership to Kappa Alpha Psi and eventually became the chapter’s president. But his involvement in Greek life, and the time-consuming new member process, didn’t go unnoticed.
“My coach was pissed,” Simmons recalls, referring to the pledge process of attaining full membership. “I pretty much lied to him the whole time and told him I didn’t know what he was talking about. But it was kind of obvious that I was going through some stuff.”
Simmons says the concerns of his coaches faded after he became a full member but that his decision to take on another significant time commitment was not supported.
“They don’t really support […] you being involved in a lot outside of your sport because they feel like you should put all that extra time […] into your sport to make yourself and your team better,” Simmons says. “It’s pretty much like how most teachers think their subject is the most important and the only one that matters.”
He acknowledges that he initially came to school to play football and understands why coaches would be hesitant about student-athletes taking on other commitments. In his words, the school is “paying you” to play your sport and represent the university. But some student-athletes undoubtedly want their college experience to be defined by more than their sport, and at Northwestern joining the Greek community is one way to accomplish that goal. Going Greek poses a number of problems for student athletes, including the possibility of skeptical coaches. For some, the team is akin to a fraternity or sorority, so there’s no need to join a Greek organization. But how do those who do take part in Greek life balance both commitments? Do they ever have to choose one over the other? What’s the difference between the fraternal experience of a team and the similar bond of a Greek chapter?
Even though a team could be construed as a type of fraternity, Northwestern student-athletes from a number of varsity teams continue to join Greek chapters. The football team — which many would consider the best fraternity on campus — has several Greek players in both National Pan-Hellenic Council fraternities and Interfraternity Council organizations. NPHC at Northwestern includes seven members of the “Divine Nine,” including Kappa Alpha Psi. Northwestern’s IFC, on the other hand, consists of 18 fraternities.
Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike), an IFC fraternity, has a history of attracting student-athletes as potential members. Within the chapter there are currently 12 varsity athletes, many of whom are swimmers. Four football players that recently received bids didn’t end up joining the fraternity.
According to former Pike president and McCormick junior Patrick Schnettler, the four players accepted their bids and wanted to join the chapter, but ended up not doing so. Schnettler, who is now president of IFC, declined to give the names of the four players, but says that the main reason they didn’t join was because they were worried joining a fraternity would negatively affect their time commitments to both their academics and football.
Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald doesn’t have a standard policy on Greek life, according to spokesperson Mike Wolf. “He does not have a formal policy on this, but if a student-athlete is not performing up to academic expectations, etc., he would likely advise them not to join a fraternity,” Wolf wrote in an email. “Several factors go into such decisions, but Coach Fitzgerald always wants his [student-athletes] to enjoy a well-rounded college experience.”
Like any varsity sport, football is a huge time commitment, so it’s understandable that a coach would be wary of his players joining another organization. Simmons admits that trying to balance both commitments was “something I would never do again or wish on my worst enemies,” but many student-athletes still see the appeal of a haven outside the athlete bubble.
David Nwabuisi, a senior with one remaining year of football eligibility, is the president of Omega Psi Phi at Northwestern and a starting linebacker for the Northwestern football team. As one of the Wildcats’ key defenders, there is extra pressure for him to perform on the football field. But he has never had any major issues balancing both football and fraternity. He says that Omega Psi Phi has allowed him to interact with others at Northwestern he may have never encountered had he not joined the Greek community, especially because the football team is like a fraternity of its own.
“You’ve got so many teammates you don’t really need any other friends,” he says. “But once I joined the fraternity it opened up all these other lanes to socialize with people and get to know other people.”
Nwabuisi understands why coaches would be hesitant about certain players joining Greek life. His own ability to balance football, Greek life and academics was the only reason he was able to go Greek successfully.
“Coaches want your focus on football understandably. They’re paying you to do it,” Nwabuisi says. “They just don’t want you to lose track of what you came here for.”
Despite the heavy commitment football requires, the team has a substantial Greek population. A number of campus leaders are on the team, so it’s clear that Fitzgerald wants his players to explore the many opportunities afforded by college, as Wolf said. Some coaches, however, are less open to the idea of Greek life.
Dominic Greene, the director of fraternity and sorority life at Northwestern, says that in the past he has worked with chapters concerned about potential conflicts between coaches and athletes who want to join Greek life. “There has been a time in the past where I’ve been asked by a fraternity to send an email to a coach being like, ‘Hey, this is OK, they’re a good fraternity,’ because this athlete was afraid the coach was going to pull his scholarship,” Greene says. However, that fraternity eventually decided that it wasn’t necessary for Greene to contact the coaches.
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One male student-athlete, who spoke under condition of anonymity, recently decided to join a Greek organization against the wishes of his coach. Though the coach never explicitly told him not to go Greek, he feels that the coach wouldn’t have been pleased with his decision. The student-athlete says he mainly wanted something in addition to his team.
“The athletes at this school, they all hang out together, they all go to each other’s parties, they all go to each other’s games,” he says. “It sort of limits the people you can meet, and there are a lot of really interesting people at the school.”
When he arrived at Northwestern, he initially figured that athletes didn’t join fraternities. But he eventually met students who were in fraternities and decided he wanted to join the Greek community. Before he joined, however, he wanted to make sure a fraternity wouldn’t interfere with his academics or sport. The student-athlete says that prior to joining he spoke to the fraternity’s pledge educator, who assured him there would be no hazing or anything that interfered with his athletic commitment. If joining a fraternity would have cut down on his academics or athletics, the student-athlete wouldn’t have joined. “These guys know I’m here to play a varsity sport more than I am to be in a fraternity,” he says.
He doesn’t expect to keep his new fraternity a secret forever. But for now, members of both the fraternity and his team are keeping quiet. It’s not the first time this has happened, either: Greene recalls a situation where a fraternity didn’t wish to give him the real names of student-athlete members, because they feared a negative reaction from their coaches.
The aforementioned student-athlete anticipates his coach will find out eventually, but he is confident that his coach won’t be upset as long as he maintains his quality of play. The athlete also says that he will likely remain closer with his team but will be able to more spend time with the fraternity during the offseason.
Nwabuisi gives a similar assessment of the situation facing Greek athletes, some of whom have skeptical coaches. In his mind, it’s all about time management and handling multiple commitments.
“At the end of the day you have to make your own decisions […] you can’t just disappear from football if you’re going to decide that you want to also do this,” Nwabuisi says. “You’ve just got to make sure you can balance it all. I decided I was going to be able to balance it all, so I went forward with it.”
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For many student-athletes, it can be difficult to balance so many commitments, whether or not the athlete is a member of a Greek organization. But going Greek did help one ex-athlete quit her team. Sophomore Hannah Singer, a former diver, quit the team during her freshman year, mostly due to injury and the intensity of participating in a varsity sport. But she says having a group of friends in her sorority, Kappa Delta, helped make the decision easier.
Mary Grace Gallagher, a senior member of Kappa Delta, recently finished her final year of volleyball. Originally, she was opposed to joining Greek life and even felt like her mother forced her to go Greek. (Gallagher is from Atlanta, and according to her mother, “Every southern girl must join a sorority.”) Gallagher has been very involved in her sorority since the end of her sophomore year, holding positions like assistant treasurer and treasurer. But prior to the end of her sophomore year, she was “absent” from Greek life.
“My team was like my sorority. I had 14 girls who were my best friends and literally hung out 24/7,” she says. “So there was no reason to be involved in a sorority, because I felt like I already had that through the volleyball team.”
Toward the end of her sophomore year, Gallagher immersed herself in Kappa Delta on a spur-of-the-moment decision. She received an email stating that the assistant treasurer decided that she no longer wanted to hold the position and that a replacement was needed. Gallagher says she randomly decided to apply and was awarded the position. From that moment, Kappa Delta became a defining aspect of her college career.
She lived in the Kappa Delta chapter house during her junior year and became extremely close with the girls in her sorority. When she began living in the house and became active on the Kappa Delta council, Gallagher became even closer with her sorority sisters.
“All of a sudden I would go to practice and hang out with [my teammates], but then I’d be really excited to come home and hang out with all the girls in KD,” she says. “That I was more excited to see them than hang out with my friends at volleyball was just a very interesting switch for me.”
But during this period, she says it sometimes became difficult to handle both her athletic commitment and her sorority responsibilities. During the fall, when she was often traveling with the team, she had to stay on top of her schedule and plan ahead so she wouldn’t fall behind in her duties as treasurer. Despite the extra effort required by her position, overall she never had a problem balancing her commitment to both athletics and Kappa Delta.
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Betsi Burns, who is currently Northwestern’s assistant dean of students, worked in the athletic department for almost 15 years before becoming assistant dean. Besides being the assistant director of athletics, the director of student development and an avid Wildcats supporter — the walls of her office are even painted purple — Burns was an academic adviser in the athletic department. In fact, Gallagher was one of her advisees. When she was in college at Purdue, Burns was an active member of Alpha Omicron Pi, a sorority that does not have a chapter at Northwestern. She is a big proponent of the Greek system at Northwestern and believes it is a positive influence on campus.
“A lot of the values that our student-athletes hold are also held by Greek organizations in terms of academics, community service, philanthropy and leadership,” Burns says.
Lots of regular students don’t join Greek organizations, and Burns says athletes aren’t any different. But for those who want to join a fraternity or sorority, it can be a meaningful aspect of college life, just like it is for Nwabuisi and Gallagher.
“Student-athletes that do decide to go Greek handle it very well and take advantage of everything that the Greek system has to offer,” Burns says. “It’s a great distraction for them, to be involved in other things outside of their sport. It gives them some balance.”
Greek organizations will often make concessions to athletes, because they frequently have to miss chapter events for games, practice and other athletic commitments. Former Pike president Schnettler says his fraternity understands that athletics can come first, especially when athletes are in the midst of their season.
“They are contributing to Pike by being a varsity athlete and somebody who is contributing to the Northwestern community in that way,” Schnettler says.
Burns expresses a similar view: “Really, it’s the Greek organizations that understand and know that athletics plays a huge part in these students’ lives. It’s their scholarships. They’ve made a commitment. So what I’ve found is Greek organizations are very understanding when they pledge a student-athlete, and work with that student individually and understand that there are going to be concessions.”
Burns says that when she was in the athletic department, she never witnessed any coaches openly discouraging players from joining Greek life. She says coaches generally want their players to fully experience Northwestern, including the Greek system if they choose. But she also says that some coaches consider the team to be a fraternal experience.
“Some of them really feel as though their team is their support — their friend base — that fills that void that a Greek organization might for a student,” Burns says. “So why would they need that?”
The answer to that rhetorical question varies for Northwestern’s student-athletes in the Greek community. For some, joining a fraternity or sorority was a matter of family history or cultural bond. For others, the goal was to find a friend outlet away from the athlete bubble at Northwestern. And many don’t go Greek at all.
Greek organizations — especially fraternities — tend to value athletics. Success in intramural sports is generally seen as a significant accomplishment by fraternal organizations. The “athlete” is interwoven with the notion of an idealized fraternity man. Pike’s slogan, for example, is “Scholars, Leaders, Athletes, Gentlemen.”
At Northwestern, however, the athlete’s role within the Greek system seems to be inconsistent and inexact. Though, according to Burns, student-athletes are encouraged on the surface to pursue other interests outside of sports — and clearly many do — there are athletes who are discouraged from pursuing their interest in Greek life.
In an age when college athletes across the country have become high-profile celebrity figures, perhaps joining a Greek organization provides a sense of normality. Though the term student-athlete represents a college athlete’s commitment to both academics and sport, the concept of being a student involves more than just taking classes. The well-rounded student is typically involved in a number of activities, and for Northwestern students, Greek life is a common extracurricular. For student-athletes, finding the balance between “student” and “athlete” might be made easier by getting involved in something like Greek life.
The time required to excel in the classroom and on the field might be enough to discourage many student-athletes from going Greek. But clearly it’s still very possible to maintain involvement in both the athletic and Greek spheres of Northwestern. For Simmons, participating in both athletics and Greek life is all about determination.
“If it’s really that important to you and something you really want to do and that you commit yourself to doing, it can be done.”
Full disclosure: The writer of this story, Stanley Kay, was elected president of Delta Chi earlier this quarter. He also regularly attends IFC Presidents’ Forum. While Patrick Schnettler is now IFC President and leads the biweekly forum, Kay did not know Schnettler before he interviewed him for this story.