Phi’s first house from 1889 to 1943. This location is where the Triplett Alumni Center stands today near the Grove.
About Us
The Phi chapter of the Delta Psi Fraternity was founded on June 22nd, 1855 in Oxford, MS. In 1889, the chapter built and began to occupy the first fraternity house in the state of Mississippi. The house stood near the Grove and where the Triplett Alumni Center sits today.
During the state ban on college fraternities during the 1920s, it was occupied by the Nobel Prize laurate and Oxford writer William Faulkner. Some of Faulkner’s early works were written in the house. After the ban was lifted, the chapter reoccupied the house starting in 1934.
In 1943, the original house burned down and Phi purchased a new house at Fraternity Drive and Chapel Lane. After another fire in 1965, a new chapter house was built which served as our home until 2023. In 2023, we moved from that facility to a temporary new house at 97 S Poole Drive on campus. We remain owners of the house at 307 Fraternity Row and plan to return there after a building project.
From our inception, our brothers have held themselves to the highest standards of academic excellence, campus and community involvement, athleticism, personal integrity, and leadership. These qualities are exhibited in our membership, both past and present.
Our brothers include:
Dr. Frank Moak: Dean of Students and longtime Delta Psi faculty advisor.
Judge William Hemingway: chairman of the University Committee on Athletics and namesake of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at the University.
Senator Joseph Bailey, Sr.: Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives from 1887-1899 and United States Senator from 1901 to 1913.
Tom Swayze: longtime coach of the Ole Miss baseball team and namesake of Swayze Field at the university.
Governor Hugh L. White: Governor of Mississippi from 1936-1940 and 1952-1956.
Congressman William Madison Whittington: U.S Representative from Mississippi 1925-1951, Chairman of Committee on Flood Control
Speaker Walter Sillers, Jr: Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1944-1966.
Charles Betts Galloway: Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Secretary Luke E. Wright: Governor-General of the Philippines (1904-1906), United States Ambassador to Japan (1906-1907), and the Secretary of War in the Roosevelt administration (1908-1909).