Seven Northwestern fraternities faced off in the annual Interfraternity Council basketball tournament to raise $800 for a charity organization of their choice Saturday.
Zeta Beta Tau won 19-17 over Delta Tau Delta and will donate its winnings to the Children’s Miracle Network. The charity provides funding for treatment, research and equipment at 170 children’s hospitals in the United States and Canada.
“It has nothing to do with me,” said ZBT team captain and Weinberg sophomore Bayless Bolt. “These guys over here carried really hard, and we just played like a team.”
ZBT’s string of three 3-pointers in the last minute of their semifinal game against last year’s champions, Sigma Nu, propelled it into the finals against Delt.
Although Delt had a narrow lead of one point at halftime, Bolt’s breakaway and slam dunk helped bring ZBT to its 2-point win over Delt.
For IFC President and SESP junior Brayden Golder, the philanthropic event showed students that Greek life is about more than social events like parties.
“While we are mainly looked at as a social fix for people, we also give back,” Golder said. “We also do things that bring brotherhood while also having a philanthropic footprint on campus.”
Golder said this year’s $800 charity donation marked an increase from the $100 raised last year.
He said bringing the game to Welsh-Ryan Arena this year brought the event to “the next level.” Golder added that he hopes the event will grow in the future with fan attendance.
“We’re definitely going to make an investment in getting specialized jerseys for each fraternity,” Golder said on plans for next year’s tournament. “We definitely want to have more attendance. Now that we know we can have it at Welsh-Ryan, next year, the whole point is to make it even bigger.”
Golder added that he was happy to include Phi Kappa Psi, a fraternity that returned this academic year, in the tournament.
McCormick sophomore and IFC Vice President of Engagement Devan Harrison said he was thrilled about the event and hoped for even more engagement next year.
“Because we’re all in different chapters, we end up with a situation where you don’t get to interact with a lot of those people that you knew in the fall of your freshman year,” Harrison said. “I was really excited that we were able to get people to mesh and hang out with each other with some friendly competition.”
Golder said bringing seven of Northwestern’s nine fraternities together for the event was “awesome,” noting its representation of “brotherhood” across the fraternity community.
“Greek life’s back,” Golder said. “We’re back.”
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