Introduction of Sigma Nu
Sigma Nu's past is a proud and colorful one. Founded by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in a period of civil strife known as the Reconstruction, Sigma Nu represented a radical departure from the times. The system of physical abuse and hazing of underclassmen at VMI led to James Frank Hopkins, Greenfield Quarles, and James McIlvaine Riley to form the "Legion of Honor" which soon became Sigma Nu Fraternity. So, amidst a backdrop of turmoil, North America's first "Honor" fraternity was established.
Before Sigma Nu
As a result of the Civil War, the South suffered through economic devastation as it entered 1866.
In Lexington, Virginia, Virginia Military Institute had re-opened, admitting non-Virginia students for the first time. First year students were subjected to rampant hazing and were treated as subservient. Amongst the first year students to enter VMI in the fall of 1866 were three young men who would change the face of the school and emerge as leaders.
Founders
Older than the average first-year cadet, James Frank Hopkins was the leading personality behind
the founding of Sigma Nu. Hopkins, an idealist inclined to rashness, was born in Ripley, Mississippi, on December 30, 1845. Hopkins had experienced military subservience during the war, and was willing to tolerate a reasonable amount of constraint intended to induce discipline. However, Hopkins was unwilling to accept any amount of hazing then being allowed at VMI.
Hopkins’ temperament and impulsive character demanded a counter balance. That 
balance came in the person of Greenfield Quarles who was calm, careful and cautious. Quarles was born on April 1, 1847. Greenfield Quarles, from Arkansas, a Kentuckian by birth.
While Hopkins and Quarles complemented each other, a third person of the right character and value was needed to bring balance and complete the trio.
James McIlvaine Riley was that third man. Popular among his classmates with charming manners and an affable disposition, Riley was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 16, 1849.
These three men began a movement to completely abolish the hazing system at VMI.
Legion of Honor
Sigma Nu’s beginning started on a blue-moonlit night in October, 1868, when the three founders met at the limestone outcropping on the edge of the VMI parade grounds. Hopkins, Quarles and Riley clasped hands on the Bible and gave their solemn pledge to form a brotherhood of a new society they called the Legion of Honor.
The vows taken by these three Founders bound them together to oppose hazing at VMI and encouraged the application of the Honor Principle in all their relationships. That the founders should adopt Honor as a guiding principle was a natural move since a rigid code of Honor was already an established traditon of the VMI Corps of Cadets. The Honor system at VMI required each cadet to conform to the duty imposed by his conscience that each act be governed by a high sense of Honor.
Beginning of Sigma Nu Nationally
On January 1, 1869, the Founders publicly announced their new society. During its first year of public existence, emphasis was placed on expanding membership and at the graduation ceremony of the three founders the Fraternity consisted of 51 members. Also during the first year of the Fraternity, it was Hopkins’ desire for a badge to be a means of identification, and it is to Hopkins alone that the credit goes for the idea and design of the badge. The first badges were cut from gold and decorated with the symbols of Sigma Nu.
Omakrons
The OmaKron Fraternity celebrated its fiftieth anniversary October 15, 2005,
in Bowling Green, Kentucky in conjunction with the Homecoming festivities of
Western Kentucky University. The Omakrons were founded in the Fall of 1955.
A total of 124 men were initiated into the Omakron Fraternity. They came up
with Oma-Kron, because “Oma” meant big, and “Kron” meant deal, symbolizing the “Big
Deal” that the club would become. The organization ended May 1965 when they became Eta Rho Chapter of Sigma Nu Fraternity.
