AΦΩ Delta Chapter

99 years on The Plains.

Founded on Halloween night, 1927, by eleven Eagle Scouts in a classroom over the auditorium of Broun Hall. Still here.

Centennial in 1 years

Halloween night
1927

Founding

A classroom over the auditorium of Broun Hall

On October 31, 1927, Col. Millard Wescott journeyed to Auburn over dirt roads from Montgomery to install the Delta Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega. Eleven students received membership and thus became the founders of Delta.

The eleven
  • Paul Brake
  • George G. Blau, Jr.
  • C. D. Bradley
  • N. C. Canterbury
  • Jesse W. Calhoun
  • William E. Keith, Jr.
  • Frank W. Lull
  • William W. Oyler
  • Charles F. Striplin
  • William C. Welden
  • H. G. Wilcox
1929

In the Glomerata

Early Delta entry in the 1929 Glomerata yearbook
March 13
1951

The Book Exchange

A student-run answer to post-war textbook prices

When the Junior Class Council looked for a sponsor for a non-profit book exchange, Delta said yes. The BX opened in temporary building 2-B — later the site of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library — and would shuffle through ten campus locations over the next half-century, always run by brothers, always for students.

Same year: the Ugliest Man on Campus tradition kicks off.

1958

Sweetheart tradition

Barbara Ellis — one of the chapter's first Sweethearts. The Sweetheart Ball became a winter-semester anchor that ran for decades.

Chapter Sweetheart Barbara Ellis, 1958
November
1960

War Eagle

Delta becomes the steward of the War Eagle program

A golden eagle, captured from a cotton field in Curry Station and sent to Auburn with a load of turkeys, becomes War Eagle III. Brother Jon Bowden — who'd worked with hawks in Colorado — built the cage and trained him.

For forty years the chapter cared for War Eagles III through VI, raised the funds for their habitats, and walked them onto the field on Saturdays. The program passed to the Southeastern Raptor Center in 2000.

War Eagle site marker dedication, 1960
1973

BX finds Foy Union

December — the Book Exchange moves into the Foy Union basement below War Eagle Cafeteria. Generations of brothers ran textbook checkout from this corner of campus.

The Book Exchange in Foy Union, 1973
1984

Bill Boyett & the eagle

Forty years of stewardship in a single photograph — a Delta brother and a War Eagle, on the way to a game.

Brother Bill Boyett with a War Eagle, 1984
Early 1990s
MBU

Merit Badge University

A college campus for Scouts

Delta brothers run Merit Badge University every spring on the Auburn campus. Hundreds of Scouts BSA travel in, classes are taught by Auburn professors and active brothers, and the chapter that loves the Boy Scout movement gets to keep loving it.

It's our flagship service event today — thirty-plus years on, still The Plains.

2000s

Service in every direction

Habitat for Humanity builds. YMCA Camp Grist retreats. Spring break at Wolf Bay. Cookouts that doubled as fundraisers. The roster of what Delta does shifts each semester; the principle doesn't.

Habitat for Humanity build, 2001
Today
2026

Year 99

Same Plains. Same three principles.

The chapter that started on Halloween night in a classroom over an auditorium is still here. Coed since 1976. Service-first by founding charter. A national-fraternity, lifetime-membership brotherhood with one of the longest continually-active runs of any APhiO chapter in the country.

The centennial lands on October 31, 2027. 1 year out.

Rush information Merit Badge University

Marks on the Plains

What Delta left behind.

Walk the Auburn campus and you'll see Delta's fingerprints in places that long outlasted the brothers who put them there. A handful are still right there in plain view.

Samford Hall

The Auburn site marker

Donated by Delta and still planted in front of Samford Hall — the bronze marker that names the spot.

Samford Park

The lathe

Obtained and kept up by Delta for as long as anyone can remember — the chapter still adopts it as a small bit of upkeep work each year.

Ross Square

The fountain

Funded by years of Delta's Ugliest Man on Campus fundraisers — now run by Zeta Tau Alpha as Big Man on Campus. The fountain stayed; the campaign moved homes.

Forty years and counting

The War Eagles

Delta stewarded Auburn's golden eagles for forty-plus years — arguably the contribution students and alumni recognize most.

Sources

Founding account from The Laurel Wreath, 8th Edition — APhiO's national history. War Eagle program and Book Exchange histories drawn from chapter records, c. 2010. Photographs from the chapter archive.