Robert Cole: Ice Ice Baby

Morehouse College class of ’87. Pledged Alpha Phi Alpha in the spring of 1986. The Alpha Rho step team was the featured fraternity in Spike Lee’s classic, “School Daze.”

It just brings back some memories about trying out for the step show team, putting together the steps and trying to be creative enough because there were about 16 fraternities and sororities that were entered into the step show contest to get in the movie.

We were just trying to be unique with what we wanted to do. As we were being creative one of the other guys in the movie, Reginald Tabor, and I were kind of joking about turning a flip. He said I can do it and did a back flip with no hand in the dorm room. I could do it as well. So we then use that to get into the movie.

There were eight of us in the movie... I remember doing the back flip landing and looking at Spike Lee and he just kind of fell out. It was remarkable because we really felt like superstars. We were famous for months. I think that really changed stepping because at that point people started doing more dancing and acrobatics in step moves.

There was even some discussion that Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby,” came from us, because we chanted it in the movie.

To this day ... everybody knows about the movie. But it changed the whole perspective of college life, because it’s not just getting an education. It’s the fraternities and sororities and the stepping and that opened the eyes of a lot of people. Being a member of the oldest fraternal organization is special because so many are called but few are chosen.

‘To this day ... everybody knows about the movie. But it changed the whole perspective of college life, because it’s not just getting an education. It’s the fraternities and sororities and the stepping and that opened the eyes of a lot of people.’

Robert Cole’s line in 1986. He is third from the left. Cole, a graduate of Morehouse College and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, appeared in the movie “School Daze.”

Cole’s original “line jacket” from the movie “School Daze.” Cole did a back flip while stepping during the movie.

Cole says, “Being a member of the oldest fraternal organization is special because so many are called but few are chosen.”