In the spring of 1961 at Harpur College, a few disenchanted members of an intramural soccer team sat in the campus pub, had a few beers and decided to start a sports and social club.

50 years later, Harpur College is the liberal arts school of Binghamton University, the campus pub has closed and its legendary Tiger’s Head Ale has been discontinued. The sports and social club known as Tau Alpha Upsilon, however, remains. Now a fraternity, TAU will celebrate its 50th anniversary this weekend.

More than 250 of TAU’s 600 alumni will return to Binghamton over the coming days.

Geoff Epstein ‘89, a co-chair of the Tau Alpha Upsilon Alumni Society, set the date for the anniversary celebration more than two years ago.

“To have everyone here, it’s remarkable,” Epstein — who goes by “Gerrry” (yes, with three Rs) when talking to anyone from his college days — said, referring to what he called the “unprecedented” turnout for the event.

Scott Seigal, a senior majoring in psychology and the current president of TAU, echoed that sentiment.

“It’s incredible when you think about it,” Seigal said. “How many other fraternities at Binghamton could pull this many alumni for an event?”

According to Daniel Polhamus ‘00, associate director of alumni relations at the BU Alumni Association, no other fraternity — or any campus entity for that matter — ever has.

“The alumni office is involved with a lot of these events, around 75 to 90 per year, and going back in our memory this is the biggest single-group event on record,” Polhamus said.

TAU, which is unique to BU, is the oldest fraternity on campus — it’s older than Hinman College, the Glenn G. Bartle Library or the Watson School of Engineering.

TAU brothers were instrumental in the founding of Harpur’s Ferry, Binghamton’s student-run ambulance service, in 1973, during C. Peter Magrath’s first tenure as president of the University. TAU brothers also worked closely with the predecessors of today’s Student Association Programming Board members to bring concerts and comedians to campus, including James Taylor, the Kinks and George Carlin.

A column in the April 18, 1986 edition of Pipe Dream titled “The Tradition of TAU Continues” marked TAU’s 25th anniversary by highlighting the fraternity’s programming efforts, charity work and alumni. It also pointed to another salient feature: “when the campus is looking for a sick party with no lines for beer, they immediately turn towards TAU.”

According to Epstein, whom Seigal considers an authority on the fraternity’s history, “TAU Weekend” was the forerunner to today’s Spring Fling. Before the legal drinking age was raised in the 1980s, TAU threw “100-keg bashes” on campus annually. There were games, T-shirts, prizes and presumably, a good deal of drinking.

Epstein, who spoke to Pipe Dream at length about TAU’s past, said that the fraternity has evolved from the sports club’s “straight and narrow” early days in the ’60s. He said TAU became more party-oriented in the following decades, “especially after ‘Animal House,'” making a reference to the classic college film that debuted in 1978.

“The guys sort of embraced that atmosphere,” Epstein said. “TAU was known for throwing two toga parties a year from the late ’70s to the early ’90s.”

Though TAU won’t be tapping dozens of kegs in front of the University Union this weekend, the “TAU Fiftieth Anniversary Weekend” will highlight the fraternity’s history.

On Friday, TAU alumni from each decade will go out to dinner separately before convening at TAU’s current house on Exchange Street in Binghamton. Saturday will feature a docket of sporting events, including the “TAU Geezer” softball game, in which older alumni will square off, as well as the “TAU Football Challenge,” in which pre-2000 brothers will compete against post-2000 brothers in what Epstein described as a “hard two-hand touch” football game where pride will be at stake.

The 250 returning alumni and 31 active brothers will gather at the Binghamton Riverwalk Hotel and Conference Center Saturday evening for the anniversary ceremony. Seigal, who will be one of several speakers at the event, said there will be a live band and comedian, as well as “a couple give-aways.” Epstein said there would be “a few surprises, but nothing risqué.”

The fraternity will share a private brunch at the TAU Bearcat Club Room in the Events Center on Sunday morning.

“I know there will be more than a few guys still feeling the effects of the night before,” Epstein said, laughing. “I just hope they make it there on time.”

The venue for the brunch, as evidenced by its name, is one of several of the fraternity’s fundraising achievements. Along with the Club Room, the TAU Scoreboard and Press Box at the Bearcats Sports Complex were made possible by donations from the TAU Alumni Society. The Alumni Society was founded in 2001 to “maintain the camaraderie, spirit and brotherhood of TAU in an organized fashion,” Epstein said. It also provides funding for the Terrence “Tex” Harran Memorial Scholarship and the TAU Athletic Scholarship.

Epstein said TAU alumni have donated “well in excess of $600,000” over the past decade.

Though TAU began as a sports club and won numerous intramural championships — there’s an entire trophy case dedicated to TAU in the Events Center — and the focus of alumni donations remains on athletics, active brothers admit that their priorities have shifted away from TAU’s original raison d’etre.

“We try, but we definitely aren’t the most athletic bunch,” Seigal said. “We made the playoffs in a five-on-five basketball league … but I can’t remember the last time we won a softball game.”

In a subtle elbow jab to active brothers, Epstein mentioned to Pipe Dream that one of the Alumni Society’s goals was to “bring TAU back to athletics,” but readily acknowledged that the fraternity’s focus would naturally shift over a 50-year period.

“When we give out bids, we give out bids to people we like. We’re not going to purposely choose pledges based on how good of an athlete we think they’ll be,” Seigal said, when asked about the alumni’s riffing.

He then made a quip about a certain standout walk-on for the men’s basketball team.

“Maybe if Jimmy Gray pledged,” Seigal joked.