The infamous NoZe Brothers, those sultans of shenanigans, now will be able to boast of a Brother in the U.S. Senate.

Sen. Tea Party NoZe, anyone?

Kentucky ophthalmologist Rand Paul, who attended Baylor from the fall of 1981 to the summer of 1984, never obtained a degree from the institution. Instead, he left Baylor early when Duke accepted him in its School of Medicine.

Senator-elect Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, was a former Baylor University student from 1981-84.
David Kohl / Associated Press, file

His membership in the underground band of merry pranksters — who dubbed their alma mater “Baylor Barber Kollege of Knowledge at Jerusalem on the Brazos” — became a campaign issue this fall with the publication in GQ magazine of some of his alleged behavior.

The clandestine NoZe Brothers enjoyed tormenting the administration and tweaking its religiosity, resulting in antics that veered into occasional vandalism.

One such stunt attributed to Paul involved knocking over a campus monument in an apparently unsuccessful attempt to boost a Baylor centennial time capsule, according to the GQ article.

Another incident reported by GQ involved a mock abduction of a female swim team friend of Paul’s, pot smoking and “worship” of an Aqua Buddha.

Paul denied GQ’s report that he kidnapped the girl and forced her to smoke marijuana. But he did not deny collegiate hijinks during his Baylor days.

Kentucky voters apparently weren’t put off by his reported youthful indiscretions, sending him to Washington D.C. in January 2011 with a substantial margin of victory — 56 percent to 44 percent against Democrat Jack Conway, the state’s attorney general.

A colorful past

Founded in venerable Brooks Hall in 1924 (which was torn down in 2006), the original Nose Brotherhood, as it was then known, formed as a joke regarding Robert Leonard Shoaf, a freshman with a large nose.

Shoaf’s nose was reputed to be of “such great length and breadth of nostril” that his chums announced they could “form a club around it.” So they did.

An irreverent campus fixture in the years that followed, the Nose Brotherhood poked good-natured fun at its rivals, the Baylor University Chamber of Commerce, and also appeared in Baylor’s yearbook, the Round-Up. Members wrote the occasional humorous piece for the annual or The Lariat, Baylor’s official student newspaper.

Although not a member himself, Baylor alumnus Terry Mattingly, editor of the news blog GetReligion.org, wrote sympathetically of its mission: “When you are a satirical society at the world’s largest Baptist university, you simply have to make fun of the sacred cows that are grazing everywhere on campus.”

From the society’s inception and through the early 1960s, participants were open about their participation. But since the mid-1960s, when the organization was driven underground, members had to assume secret identities —– and disguises.

In 1965, the chamber had built a wooden bridge on campus and painted it white. One night, several brothers painted it pink.

Fred A. Gildersleeve, Waco’s leading commercial photographer of the first half of the 20th century, snapped these members of the Nose Brotherhood, later known as the NoZe Brothers, for the 1934 Baylor yearbook, The Round-Up.
The Round-Up 1934 photo

After several rounds of re-painting thwarted both sides’ will, the legend goes, some sparks from a lit cigar mixed with paint fumes to cause the bridge over Waco Creek to burn down.

The stunt got the group banned from campus.

In fact, as part of that guerilla lifestyle, the name was changed from Nose Brotherhood to the more “edgy” NoZe. The lads have fallen in and out of favor with the administration numerous times since that escapade.

Wigs and costumes

Wearing Groucho-style glasses, fright wigs and outrageous costumes, the NoZe regularly crash various campus events such as “Sing,” Chapel and the Homecoming Parades. Through the satirical publication it founded in 1955, The Rope, absurdity is celebrated and Baylor life lampooned.

In the lore of the Noble NoZe, the world can be divided into five groups: members are NoZe Brothers and non-members are “Infidels.”

“Fortunates” are infidels who have had sex with a NoZe Brother. “Exiles” are NoZe Brothers who have left Baylor (ejected or graduated).

“Ornery” NoZes are honorary members given their own unique Noze-menclature:

* Bill Cosby — “Bro. J-E-L-L-NoZe”

* John Dean — “Bro. Dean of Dirty Tricks”

* Kinky Friedman — “Bro. The Yellow NoZe of Texas”

* John Glenn — “Bro. GemiNoZe”

* Billy Graham — “Bro. Cracker NoZe Graham”

* Bob Hope — “Bro. SkiNoZe Hope”

Baylor President Kenneth Starr was dubbed “Bro. Non Hostis HumaNoZe Generis” shortly before assuming his new duties earlier this year.

tjryan@wacotrib.com

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