Phi Kappa Sigma (ΦΚΣ) is an international all-male college secret and social fraternity. Its members are known as "Phi Kaps", "Skulls" and sometimes "Skullhouse", the latter two because of the skull and crossbones on the Fraternity's badge and coat of arms. Phi Kappa Sigma was founded by Dr. Samuel Brown Wylie Mitchell at the University of Pennsylvania. Mitchell recorded the initial ideas and concepts of Phi Kappa Sigma on August 16, 1850. He then began to discuss the idea with other students, first Charles Hare Hutchinson, and then Alfred Victor du Pont (son of Alfred V. du Pont), John Thorne Stone, Andrew Adams Ripka, James Bayard Hodge, and Duane Williams. The seven men formally founded the Fraternity on October 19, 1850 becoming the founding fathers of Phi Kappa Sigma

Founding

Phi Kappa Sigma was founded by Dr. Samuel Brown Wylie Mitchell at the University of Pennsylvania on August 16, 1850.

Fascinated by the prospect of fraternal relations with his fellowman, Mitchell set out to found a new, secret order in the restricted life of the university at that time. His papers indicate that on August 16, 1850, he had determined to install a new order on the campus in the fall of 1850.

Kappa Sigma (ΚΣ), commonly nicknamed Kappa Sig, is an international fraternity with currently 306 active chapters and colonies in North America. Kappa Sigma has initiated more than 240,000 men on college campuses throughout the United States and Canada. Today, the Fraternity has over 175,000 living alumni and more than 14,250 undergraduate members. It is one of the leaders of all American fraternities in terms of pledges and new initiates per year, service hours, and philanthropic donations. Its endowment fund, founded in 1919 is the oldest college fraternity foundation and has donated more than $6.5 million to undergrads since 1948 and now raises over $250,000 per year.

The Kappa Sigma Fraternity states that it is modeled after an extinct order said to have been founded at the University of Bologna in 1400. In some accounts, this order was known as "Kirjath Sepher", founded between 1395 and 1400. According to the traditional story, the corrupt governor of the city, one-time pirate and later papal usurper Baldassare Cossa, took advantage of the students at Bologna, one of Europe's preeminent universities which attracted students from all over the continent, by sending his men to assault and rob them; this motivated one of the university's scholars Manuel Chrysoloras to found a secret society of students beginning with five of his most devoted disciples, for mutual protection against Baldassare Cossa.