They used to call it “hazing”—but whatever you call it, it’s still killing people.

Tampa teen dies during fraternity initiation event

The Catawaba County Sheriff’s Department believes a Tampa teenager died during a fraternity initiation. The incident is now under investigation. Deputies said 19-year-old Harrison Kowiak, a college sophomore at Lenoir Ryhne University, died from a head injury sustained while playing a game similar to “capture the flag.”

20 replies on “What’s a “Fraternity Initiation Event”?”

  1. So what?

    A) He was a 19-years-old
    B) He was dumb (see A)
    C) He lived in Florida (See B)
    D) Capture the flag is the lamest game to play, especially online (See B)
    E) Who cares about frats? (See A)
    F) Who cares about people who aspire to be in frats? (See E)

  2. I’m no fan of fraternities, but lots of college kids (even the dorm rats) play Capture The Flag. I’m not sure your righteous indignation is necessary here.

  3. My initiation required us going through some trust test ritual, which we were set up to fail, we were then stripped of our robe standing naked with other brothers (college guys at their hottest) to learn our lesson. All this happened while “Sadness Pt. 1” by Enigma played over and over again. No one fucking died.

  5. The article said a game “similar to” capture the flag. If I know my frat hazing, that meant all the freshmen were trying to capture the flag while naked and being punched in the penis.

  6. I think the report is leaving out the details of the game and exactly how his head was injured. All kinds of fucked up stuff can be dreamed up in fraternity hazings even in the most common presumably harmless games (i.e. the opposing non-hazee team ‘tagging’ with baseball bats).

  11. Some of the weirdest hazing took place a few years ago at a UW frat, where a young man died after essentially being tortured for several days. It was reported extensively in one or both Seattle dailies.

    In one strange episode, a 60-something alumnus was reported to be swatting naked pledges *in the shower*. As far as I could tell, the alum, a big donor to UW, was never disciplined for his bizarre sexualized behavior toward the young frat boys.

  12. Chuck Norris, 70 something years old and handcuffed, could whip a bar full of sissy assed Seattle hipsters and sex writers who think “Capture the Flag” is too brutal and dangerous.

    My God. Bring our soldiers back just so we can become a nation of toughs again.

    This is beyond the pale.

  13. Bob, do you travel from whatever exurb you park your truck in and come to Capitol Hill to attack the gays? Are you a gay basher? Are you?

  16. I say any and all frat-related activities should be strictly limited to playing strip games and raunchy truth-or-dare. I mean that’s what I see in all those videos!

  17. Read the article. “In a statement, officials say the investigation is being conducted “due to the fact that original statements of witnesses to the events leading up to the injuries sustained by Mr. Kowiak were inconsistent.”

    I gotta wonder what kind of game that is similar to Capture the Flag would result in fatal head injuries. And I gotta wonder how inconsistent the statements were.

  19. It’s quite possible that something terrible was happening — even if it was just binge drinking in unsafe conditions. It’s also possible that a tragic accident happened during a normally benign activity. Like, he was running, slipped, and hit his head. It happens and it’s sad, but when it happens to someone in a fraternity it’s easy to assume it happened BECAUSE they were in a fraternity. Ad hoc ergo prompter hoc.

    @3 and @16 — the thought of that type of hazing almost made me want to join a fraternity back when I was in college. I didn’t because I thought it would turn out to be a lot more boring than that.

  20. I’m guessing that many of these comments are so flippant is because you guys have been out of college for a number of years or buy into the whole stupid frat boy stereotype. But I’m in college right now and have guy friends that are finishing their pledging, and hazing consists of a lot more than playing “capture the flag”. This “game” was probably being played by boys who were only allowed one hour of sleep, had just chugged twelve beers and were being beaten by brothers the entire time.

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