The History of the Alpha Nu Omega Fraternity at the University of Dayton

The Alpha Nu Omega fraternity was founded in 1969 by its twenty founding fathers.
The group consisted of fourteen close friends living in Stewart Hall, 4E and a group of six other friends.
The group had no desire to pledge any of the existing fraternities - twelve on campus, two national and other locals.
The twenty individuals wanted to join a fraternity as a group but research showed that no one would likely accept the entire group.

			Founding Fathers
	Bob Baird	Mike Collins	Bill Kluding	Bill McPeek	Jim Stitt
	Vic Bako	John Grant	Mike Kuzmic	Mario Modical	George Weirich
	Bill Burnell	Dave Hemmelgarn	Bill Lux	Rich Shea	John Wilhelm
	Mike Cannell	Jim Hoying	Marty Malloy	Frank Stama	Bob Wilson

In 1968 they held their first organizational meeting to discuss strategy and went on from there.
Alpha Nu Omega was chosen – the beginning, middle and end of the Greek alphabet – to signify that the fraternity was all-inclusive.
To stand apart, the motto, ‘Service for Brothers’ was selected and written in Greek while all other fraternity mottos were written in Latin.

The fraternity colors, red and gold, were chosen as no other fraternity used them.
Additionally, they were Vic Bako’s high school colors and his brother, a team manager, was able to get red and gold basketball uniforms – thus sealing the decision about the colors.

In order to further differentiate themselves from other fraternities and to make a statement to the Interfraternity Council (IFC),
the founding fathers defined themselves as both a service and social fraternal organization placing service ahead of social.
Early service projects included:
■ Shoeshine for charity
■ Sled donations to a local charity
■ Volunteer football coaches for City of Dayton youth league

As you might expect, the social part came quite easy!

In February 1969, the four officers made a formal presentation for acceptance to the IFC, with Marty Malloy as the main presenter.
The presentation blew the IFC away as Marty was able to answer every question completely and thoroughly.
The IFC asked if we had a constitution and by-laws and the officers handed a copy, written by Marty and a lawyer friend, to each IFC member.
This was significant in that most of the IFC fraternities did not have a constitution and by-laws and used ANΩ’s as a model to draft their own.

Although some existing fraternities did not want ANΩ, the fraternity was accepted on a probationary status for one year.
This meant that the frat had no voice at IFC meetings and no votes but were still expected to pay IFC dues.
After putting up with this for six months, the frat’s IFC delegates walked out along with two other relatively new fraternities.
This group formed its own equivalent of an IFC, becoming a huge news story in the Dayton Flyer newspaper.
The split caused problems for some of the local fraternities, but more so for nationals looking at UD.
They would not come on campus when the IFC was split.
As a result, ANΩ was asked to rejoin the IFC with full acceptance and associated privileges.
From there, ANΩ enjoyed a fifty-three-year run, with 730 alumni hailing from ninety-three pledge classes.

In 2008, the Alumni Association started the Colonel Paul M. Kelly Scholarship fund to honor a brother who died in the Iraqi War.
The fund will remain active in perpetuity, awarding money to a deserving ROTC cadet, of which Paul, his brother and his son were members.
Additionally, the Alumni Association maintains the Rich Shea fund, started in memory of a founding father.
This fund supports annual awards to deserving charities.

Anyone interested in learning more about ANΩ and its history
can visit the University of Dayton Archives to search through the trove of information and photographs stored there.

Frat Houses

218 Kiefaber

224 Kiefaber

311 Kiefaber

Last House