Pi Chapter of Alpha Tau Omega was the first fraternity to establish a chapter (as a secret society) at UT on October 18, 1872. The next year, its charter was revoked. It unsuccessfully petitioned to recapture its charter in 1898 and returned to campus in 1901.
ATO was founded in 1865 when Otis Allen Glazebrooke, a cadet at Virginia Military Institute, moved to implement his idea of forming a society of young men to promote peace and union in the strife-ridden nation. Believing that the younger generation could accomplish what older men would find difficult, he inquired into the possibility of starting a fraternity. He was shocked to find that most social fraternities had been founded solely upon Grecian ideals and philosophy and concluded that his must be a Christian fraternity. He and two close friends established the fraternity on September 11, 1865, with four precepts: (1) The search for permanent peace and brotherhood throughout the nation and world, (2) the placing of Jesus Christ at its very heart and center, (3) neither imitation of nor opposition to any Greek fraternity, and (4) lack of local or regional implications.
The colors of the fraternity are azure and gold, and its flower is the tea rose. Its motto is No North, No South, No East, No West, One Great Nation Heaven Blest. Its UT yell, when it was established, was Ruh, Ruh, Rega / Alpha Tau Omega / Hip hurrah, Hip hurrah. On campus, its hayride party and formal Halloween costume party were traditional favorites. Among its notable UT-connected alumni are Vic Davis, Tom Elam, Bob Clement, and John Tanner.
In 1964 the ATOs sold their house at the corner of Seventeenth Street and Yale Avenue to the Knoxville Housing Authority as part of the Yale Avenue Urban Renewal Project. They received $99,500. The house that the fraternity built in Fraternity Park to replace it cost $289,000 and provided living quarters for 42.