Phi Delta Theta was established on campus on September 16, 1963. A colony was formed on May 20, 1962, as Phi Delta Gamma. On April 16, 1883, the UT faculty had referred to a committee a letter from the Phi Delta Theta fraternity asking permission to create an organization in the corps of cadets, as the student body was then called, but on April 23, 1883, this petition was denied.
In 1986 Phi Delta Theta was the first fraternity to begin phasing out its “little sister” program. It did so under pressure from the national organization, because of liability insurance issues (little sisters were not covered). The national organization was founded at the University of Miami in 1848. The colors of the fraternity are argent and azure, and the mascot is the owl of Pallas Athena. The national philanthropy is Lou Gehrig’s disease. Among notable alumni of the national fraternity are Lou Gehrig, Neil Armstrong, Burt Reynolds, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Benjamin Harrison. In fall 1997 UT’s chapter of Phi Delta Theta adopted a no-alcohol policy in its house, and in 2000 Phi Delta Theta nationally banned alcohol in all chapter houses.
The charter of UT’s Phi Delta Theta Chapter was revoked in 2000 by the national organization for violating the nonhazing and nonalcohol provisions of the national organization. A group of men, not including any of the former members of the chapter, sought status as a colony in 2001, and the group was formally recognized as a colony in December 2001. Its charter was reinstalled in 2002.