To those looking from the outside, Nosebowl is nothing more than a flag football game between two rival fraternities: Pi Lambda Phi and Tau Epsilon Phi. However, from the inside, PiLam brothers, alumni and family see something entirely different. Nosebowl is a means of showing you’re a PiLam, showing you’re a gentleman, and showing how an entire pledge class can become one. That is a story I can touch on, as well as any one else who has ever been a part of this longstanding tradition.
From the beginning of the pledging process, the new members of PiLam are taught the values of what it takes to be a part of our brotherhood. Nothing instills that more than Nosebowl. Beginning the week following rush, new members practice four to five times a week for hours a day. They become committed to this, and through blood, sweat and tears (often literally), they become one entity, one pledge class and eagerly wait the moment when they can join our one brotherhood.
To take this as a joke would be a mistake. Every person who has played in or will play in Nosebowl can tell you it is an emotional ride. The moment you step off the field, you’ve changed entirely. The minute I walked off the field, I actually felt different. I felt closer to my fraternity than I can put into words. I didn’t yell back at players when I was told derogatory things. Most importantly, I won as a gentleman.
Alumni, year after year, come back to watch this game. The entire semester they get told the progress of the team, and come Nosebowl, alumni come from all over to watch the pledge class play. Again I reiterate, calling it a joke would be a mistake. Alumni from the ‘60s and ‘70s can recount every play, every moment of their game like it was yesterday. When you ask alumni what the most important moment of their life was, you can expect to hear “’my marriage, my kids,’ and then… ‘Nosebowl.’” These men never forget this game. I have never forgotten this game.
Pi Lambda Phi lives by the motto “Not four years, but a lifetime.” Each and every time an alumni steps through our doors, this message echoes through my head. It is way past four years and these men come back, year after year. It must be something driving them back, right? It’s Nosebowl. Nosebowl brings us together as a fraternity, and shows our new members that we truly mean it when we say we are a brotherhood for a lifetime.
