When Dennis Siegmann ’68 stepped foot on Bloomsburg University’s campus for his first semester, it looked quite different than it does today. He found the most palpable thing about the university that hasn’t changed was the unwavering camaraderie among its students.

Dennis felt the same way when he lived in Waller hall in 1965. At this time, there were no fraternities on campus, but there was a strong brotherhood forming amongst Dennis and many of his student-athlete friends. He explained, “once the Student Improvement Organization (SIO) was established as a fraternity, the guys figured if they could make one, why couldn’t we?”

Thus, Delta Omega Chi, better known as DOC, was formed. Many of the brothers were football players or wrestlers, and unlike most of today’s fraternities, they lived together in the dorms. “There was no house,” Dennis said, “just guys.”

As Dennis recalled his time in DOC at BU, he couldn’t help but highlight the remarkable camaraderie between him and his brothers. “At the time, Bloomsburg was a small state college with only around 3,500 students,” Dennis described. “So, you built your small communities, and you would study together, talk about which classes and professors to take, and simply help each other. We were also athletes, so we formed a natural bond. We grew together, and we all needed help along the way.”
Another one of the DOC brothers, Chet Snavely ’70, also remembered this same comradery in DOC. “We had these distinctive brown coats that we were all very proud to wear around campus,” he explained. “We were pretty well known.”

DOC advisor Dr. Gilbert Selders was also very influential to the brothers. He was already involved in many of the brothers’ athletic activities, so his advisement of the fraternity was not unexpected in the least. As a dedicated leader for DOC for around twenty years, he oversaw the brothers and their activities, offering them help and guidance as they moved throughout their college years.

The fraternity’s chapter at BU died out over the years, but Dennis noted that his primary goal in helping create and establish this scholarship is to keep that sense of community he felt alive and well at BU. “I had given to BU in my family’s name before,” Dennis explained, “but I figured this would be a great opportunity to get the guys in the fraternity to establish a lasting legacy at the university.”

“Despite everything going on with fraternities at BU, we were interested in establishing a legacy for what we stood for. We created a board of directors, and throughout the year, many of the brothers from numerous pledge classes get together to reminisce and support one another. A culmination of guys decided that it was time to show everyone that we’re a really great fraternity and that we can develop a better reputation for fraternities by giving back now.”

Dennis and the board sent emails to over 300 brothers about starting a scholarship to gather interest. Immediately, one of the brothers, Darryl Swan, replied, offering to donate $10,000. “At that point,” Dennis said, “we knew we had to do this.”
“I felt that I hadn’t given back in quite some time, and I figured I could do something,” Darryl explained. “Big schools often recruit good athletes, and Bloomsburg doesn’t have a lot of money to throw at them. If there’s a way we can give a young man a scholarship to compete at Bloomsburg, I want to contribute and inspire more brothers to do so as well.”

“It’s all about paying it forward,” added Chet. “We’re trying to do what we can to make a difference. If our scholarship can make an impact on keeping athletics at BU alive and well, we’ve done our part.”

Paul Ruddy ’78 was another very influential brother in the creation of the DOC Alumni Athletic Scholarship, and he highlighted how important the brotherhood was to him while at BU: “I made lifelong friends through DOC, and we want to leave a legacy so that other students can have that too. Even though DOC has been away from BU for some time, we want to be an example to other fraternities of giving back and positively influencing the community.”

“We want to give back now to do something for future students,” Dennis explained. “The comradery we had at BU was incredible, and hopefully, this shows that there are mature, older brothers who want to give back and demonstrate all that a fraternity can be.”