A Coincidence?

Admittedly, I can be slow at times to pick these sorts of things up, but I uncovered a coincidence regarding UF’s most prominent leadership honorary.

Florida Blue Key (founded in the 1920s) may have been modeled after Phi Beta Kappa (founded in the 1770s).

Consider a few things:

1) Phi is pronounced almost like an F sound. The greek letter Φ could thus easily be replaced with a roman F in my opinion. Thus ΦBK, the greek letters for Phi Beta Kappa, become FBK.
2) A key is the symbol for both organizations.
3) UF’s colors are orange and blue. ΦBK’s key is gold (close to orange), FBK’s key is blue. Coincidence?
4) Both are leadership honoraries meant to select the top students at the school.

I’m not saying there’s anything bad about the similarities. I just wouldn’t be surprised if the founders of Florida Blue Key had used Phi Beta Kappa as a model for FBK’s construction.