Our Origins
Who are we?
Beta Gamma Omega was founded December 8, 2008 by six music education majors at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. Beta Gamma Omega has grown rapidly since its initial founding, and now includes a Beta Chapter at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX.
The Colors - Black and White
There were many times during the creation of BΓΩ when the founding fathers were cooped up in Christopher Haney’s dorm room on the 6th floor of Steen Hall making decisions for BΓΩ. One particularly long meeting they had together was deciding the fraternity colors. For hours they spent trying to find the right combination, but what may have looked great to some of the founding fathers, didn’t look very good to others. This task was especially difficult because one of the founding fathers, Christopher Phillips, is color blind. They finally decided on the simple colors black and white for the overall fraternity because it covered the entire color spectrum. From there it was suggested that each founding father could pick their own family color to be happy with. The idea was inspired by “Harry Potter” and how the different houses have different colors.
Our Motto
The founding fathers wanted a simple motto that separated BΓΩ from the stereotypical Hollywood persona of a fraternity and also emphasize the importance of brotherhood. It was founding father Joshua Schmidt who actually came up with the words “Brotherhood before Fraternity”.
The Letters - ΒΓΩ
When the founding fathers were coming up with the specific Greek letters for the fraternity, they always had in mind for the letters to spell out “Bro”. Beta was chosen for the ‘B’ and Gamma was chosen because it looked like a lower case ‘r’. For the final Greek letter the founding fathers were taking into consideration the way the letters would sound together in addition to the way the letters looked. Originally, they wanted Beta Gamma Omicron, but there was another fraternity already in existence with those specific letters. Beta Gamma Omega was then chosen for not being nationally known, for being aesthetically pleasing, and it sounded harmonious as well.
The Mascot - Crab
In the lengthy packet a fraternity at SFA must read through to create a fraternity with all the specific guidelines, one part in the hazing section stuck out to the founding fathers. The section stated that no fraternity could make its members walk like a crab unless for educational purposes. So the founding fathers joked of the idea that if the fraternity’s animal was a crab, then its members would be allowed to walk like a crab, obeying the university’s policy and not be considered hazing.
Our Purpose
The purpose statement of BΓΩ was a collaboration amongst the found fathers beginning with the idea to save music programs in schools because they were all music majors and art programs in schools have always been struggling. From there, the idea grew to preserve all fine arts in schools.