HOMECOMING, A CHANCE FOR EVERYONE TO COME HOME
BY OLIVIA LEGGANS PHOTO BY SOPHIA ANNESS
Crowds pack into Court Street awaiting the Marching 110. Seas of alumni and families flood College Green. Tailgaters and day drinkers line Richland Avenue. While Homecoming weekend at Ohio University is only one out of a slew of events, festivals, and celebrations, it is widely embraced by current students, alumni, parents, and children alike.
In addition to the OU’s Homecoming weekend football game this Saturday at 3:30 p.m., the Homecoming Alumni Awards Ceremony and the Annual Homecoming Parade create a major influx of visitors in Athens. This year’s Yell Like Hell Pep Rally and Bobcat Family Tent event are also some of the official events offered by OU.
This year’s freshmen may be used to sweaty gymnasium dances and crowning ceremonies for Homecoming courts in high school, but OU’s homecoming celebrations more aptly embody the spirit of Homecoming’s history.
The origins of Homecoming traditions are murky and debated among alumni from various universities that claim ownership of the initial idea. Many at the University of Illinois believe two students birthed the idea in a student newspaper in 1910 and declared it an annual tradition in 1911.
In 1908, however, Baylor University technically put on the first “Home-Coming” weekend with a football game, parade, bonfire, and pep rally. Because Baylor did not adopt this event as a tradition until later, the University of Illinois lays claim to Homecoming, and the debate lives on.
The goal of Homecoming celebrations has not drastically changed; giving alumni opportunities to reengage with their alma mater, past students, and current students, creating a tight-knit network for all involved with the University.
While universities clearly want to encourage engagement and schmooze alumni in hopes that it will translate to fundraising and donations, the energy of OU’s Homecoming Weekend radiates from the forever passionate alumni and families who show up and show out for current students.
During OU Homecoming weekend, alumni and current students rub shoulders up and down Court Street in the annual parade, and while celebrating in bars. The brick streets of OU’s campus are a great equalizer. For the short weekend, alumni of all ages, backgrounds, and statures mix it up with current football players, visiting families, future legacy children, and Athens celebrities alike — all in the name of celebrating our recent return to campus.
Many would likely agree that OU’s alumni are some of the most generous and unwaveringly proud supporters of the current student population. Some alumni are known to track down those wearing OU T-shirts in public and gush for hours about the OU experience. Others happily provide career advancement opportunities simply because an applicant goes to or graduated from OU.
While current students may lack the perspective to appreciate OU in its entirety, the resounding loyalty and enthusiasm from alumni must count for something. As the alumni eagerly rush to the campus they once called “home,” remember that it is a privilege to have OU as our home. For some of us, our annual return home is a fleeting reality. Post-graduation, OU’s Annual Homecoming weekend is the only time we will be able to come home as we know it now. For that reason, the traditions of OU Homecoming will undoubtedly live on.
