"Do you know who the Hot Nuts are?" Topitzes said.
"Who?"
"Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts," Topitzes said. He grinned, and explained that they were the inspiration for the fraternity party band in the movie "Animal House."
"They came two or three times when I was here," Topitzes said. "We had to board the windows to keep people from sneaking in."
Topitzes was sitting at an outside table in back of the Kappa Sigma fraternity at 124 Langdon St. The house was designed by noted Madison architect Frank Riley. The view out back is among the best in Madison. Topitzes was a fraternity member and lived in the house for several years in the mid-1960s.
He was telling stories about those days because it appears an era is about to end for Kappa Sigma on campus. The fraternity is looking to sell the house, which has been home to the Madison chapter of Kappa Sigma since 1924.
"It's on the market," Topitzes said. "We're waiting for bids."
Topitzes runs a Verona-based company, pc/nametag, a distributor of meeting and event supplies.
He has remained active with the fraternity since graduating in 1966 and said the house is now owned by a group called the Kappa Sigma Building Association, a non-stock group of around 1,000 alumni.
The economics of operating a fraternity house have grown increasingly difficult in recent years.
"It's hard to make the numbers work today," Topitzes said. He said Kappa Sigma had about 80 members in its Madison chapter last semester, but of those only 18 lived in the house.
Topitzes said the hope is for the fraternity chapter to continue on campus without the house, but he concedes that may be difficult. And he said a group of alumni members are also exploring the possibility of raising money to pay off the mortgage on the house, which had a major renovation a decade ago. At this point, however, a sale looks likely.
"Something will likely happen in the next six weeks," Topitzes said.
Topitzes said interest has been expressed by developers looking to sell condominiums, as well as by other fraternities and even a couple of people looking at it as a potential private residence.
"I think it would make a wonderful law office," Topitzes said.
A number of factors have made it tough for fraternity houses to survive, Topitzes said. Both the national fraternity organizations and the campus administration have pressured local chapters to either eliminate or limit hazing and drinking. Topitzes said asking pledges to clean up after a party is now considered hazing. Liability issues also loom large, and co-ed apartment living, nearly unthinkable a generation or two ago, has become commonplace.
"It could be that fraternities are becoming dinosaurs," Topitzes said.
Something will be lost with them. Greeks are traditionally among the most generous of university alumni donors. Madison chapter Kappa Sigma alums include Lee Dreyfus, the late former Wisconsin governor. Topitzes mentioned a marvelous photo of Dreyfus playing piano during a visit to the house by the actress Mae West. Other local alums include publisher Bill Haight and grocer Phil Woodman. Celebrated horse trainer D. Wayne Lukas and Rose Bowl quarterback Ron VanderKelen were Kappa Sigs in Madison.
Tuesday morning, Topitzes said, "It was a fun place but at the same time it turned out a great many successful people."
He turned his gaze back to the lake. "The sunsets are incredible."
(Article by Doug Moe, Wisconsin State Journal)
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