book of records - Kansas State University

7.04 Book of Records
In explanation of the last rule, it might be well to add here that dancing was at that time tabooed by the college
authorities.
C. S. Goldsmith was the first Chairman of the bunch. Roy Gwin was the first General Manager, handling the
financial part of the club for two years.
The naming of the club was brought about in rather an unusual manner. One night in January, 1913, the Y. W.
C. A. at the college gave a festival at the gymnasium. The boys all went, and wishing to look alike in some respect, each
one wore a red necktie. Several of the girls who were dating members of the group made fun of their ties and also asked
them what they called themselves. At the usual congregation which is held after such an affair, it was decided that the
bunch should organize itself into a club. Then the question of a name was brought up. Someone suggested that since
they had all worn red ties, they call themselves the R. T. C., the letters standing for ARed Tie Club@, and that they keep
the meaning of the letters a secret. The name was adopted and the secret was kept until the spring of 1915, when one the
newer members, in writing up an account of an R. T. C. party for The Collegian, the college newspaper, inadvertently
used the words instead of the letters.
The color adopted by the club was bright red. To this later was added the color white, and red and white
remained the colors of the R. T. C. and of Alpha Theta Chi up until the installation as a chapter of Alpha Tau Omega.
The club had no pin. Neither did it have any initiation ceremony, nor any motto, nor any creed.
During the remainder of the existence of the club as R. T. C., which includes the school year 1916-17, the
following men were taken in:
1913-14: Clyde C. Hamilton, Frank Unruh and C. H.
Simon
1914-15: Ralph P. Ramsey, Earl Ramsey, Frank
Reynolds, Walter J. Ott, George Calkins,
Ralph V. O=Neil, Charles T. Halbert,
Arthur L. Seeber, F. Clarence Seeber,
Herbert H. Frizzell and John S. Wood
1915-16: K. H. Kecker, W. C. Jannssen, Harmon
Splitter, R. N. St. John, E. S. Bacon, Leon
G. Abele, J. H. Kerr, Ira G. Freeman, Joe
A. Novak, James B. Angle and Howard K.
Woodbury
1916-17: Ernest E. Asher, Hobart M. Birks, Fred
Hiss, Carl J. Rodewald, Gabe A. Sellers, A.
Wilcox Foster, Bruce C. Hutchins, Charles
Nitcher, Walter J. Rogers and Walter W.
Rodewald
The members of the club who graduated from K. S. A. C. were: 1913, Walter Kieth; 1914, Cameron S.
Goldsmith, Elmer J. Bird, Thomas G. Spring, Roy Gwin and Harry C. Bird; 1916, Ralph V. O=Neil, John S. Wood, Paul
B. Gwin, Charles C. Halbert, Walter T. Ott, Ralph P. Ramsey and Herbert H. Frizzell; 1917, Joe A. Novak, Gabe A.
Sellers and Ira J. Freeman.
In scholarship, R. T. C. always stood high. Not being a fraternity, their grades were not computed along with
the rest, but they were figured at different times by various members and found to be always as high as the highest of the
social fraternities and usually they were up near the top of the honorary fraternities. The honorary scholastic fraternity,
Phi Kappa Phi, was installed at K. S. A. C. during the year 1915-16. John S. Wood and Gabe A. Sellers were both
elected to this fraternity.
Book of Records 7.05