Engineering a Pool Party, Tech Style
By: Jack Purdy | Categories: Tech History
In the leadup to Greek Week at Georgia Tech, fraternities and sororities spend weeks preparing for the competitions. In the 1980s and 1990s, island-themed pool parties that often included two-story wooden structures featuring pools excavated from the ground became a tradition.
Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) was one fraternity in the 1980s that would throw such a party.
“It was a massive event for us,” says Bob Gurley, IE 87. “Preparation started weeks in advance to get the trees and bamboo for the structure.”
ATO’s pool parties were some of the largest on campus and even known throughout the Southeast.
“It was the granddaddy of them all. We had between 4,000–7,000 people in our house. We had USA Today and Hawaiian Punch as sponsors.” says Tony Smart, IE 87.
Constructing the Structures and Pools
At Delta Sigma Phi, students would hand dig the pools, often excavating 12 to 15 feet into the ground depending on how far down their marker was from the previous year’s party.
“Every year we buried a yellow chair at the bottom of that hole,” says Mark Shaw, ME 94. “It was like the prize to be the person to find the chair.”
Around the main hole for the pool, students would dig narrow holes where they’d vertically place logs to hold the wooden structure above the pool in place. The top point of the structures could reach as high as 30 feet above ground.
“We hand dug the poles several feet down. Everybody would help push the log up, plus we had a rope tied to the log going into the third floor of the ATO house, where we’d help pull it up. It was definitely a construction project,” says Smart, who was studying industrial engineering at Tech.
Slides were often mounted to the top of the structures. The deep depths of the pools, commonly between 8–10 feet, were necessary so that students jumping off the top of the structures or using the slides wouldn’t hit the bottom.
Delta Sigma Phi’s slide went through their structure into the pool. Photo courtesy: Ellen Pillar, IE 93.
Hunting for Bamboo
To enhance the structures, students would source bamboo from all over Georgia, even traveling outside the state to gather materials.
“We’d go up to South Carolina or Alabama or wherever, hunting for bamboo. Sometimes we had property owners that said, ‘Yep, you can come over here and take the bamboo.’ Other times we would just see it and cut it before anybody saw us. There was a lot of bamboo over by Bobby Jones Golf Course,” says Smart.
Bamboo was primarily used as flooring for the structures and for decorative fencing. Students would spend hours lashing the bamboo together with string or twine in the weeks leading up to the parties.
“You’d have to put gloves on because the lashing would eat through your hands,” says Smart.
Once the structures were done, it was time to test it out.
“We'd finish it maybe on Thursday or so, and then Friday afternoon we'd be out there hanging out. Friday night was a big party,” says Smart.
“We’d have a band play Friday and Saturday night. One year, we had R.E.M. booked but they had to back out to tour in Japan,” says Smart.
How time consuming did the island parties get by the end of the weekend?
“I'll put it this way: I don't think I made it to church those Sunday mornings,” Smart says.
