Establishment
The initial delegation, including ten Class Day officers and led by Edwin Albert Merritt, all members of the Class of 1884, had met in secret during their senior year with the aid of members of Class of 1883 who were "eager to start a society provided the evil features of the old societies would be eliminated. were unanimous on this point." Included among the supporters from the Class of 1883 were students who though overlooked by the other societies had been touted as sure or near-sure selections by the publishers of the Horoscope, an undergraduate publication that provided feature material on the most likely taps. The pro-society seniors won the Class Day vote, 67 - 50.
An appropriate meeting hall had been erected by 1884. Members were known as Grey Friars.
The New Haven Register reported in 1886: "Wolf's Head is not as far out of the world, in respect to its public doings, as are . There is a sufficient veil of secrecy drawn around its mechanism, however, to class it with the secret societies, and this gives it a stability and respectability in Yale College circles that it might not have otherwise...." Tapping Yale alumni and prominent faculty help broaden the reach of the society's influence and further legitimized the effort in the local and greater Yale communities. The alumni association was named after a prominent member of the Yale Law School faculty. The society was briefly managed similarly to the finals clubs associated with the Sheffield Scientific School, however it soon took on almost all aspects of the older societies.
Read more about this topic: Wolf's Head (secret Society)