Starting with “Downtown Decorating” and ending with the Lions facing off against the University of the Incarnate Word’s Cardinals, the week of Homecoming 2017 will be packed with many events for students to get involved in.
Campus decorating will begin at 1 p.m. After “Downtown Decorating” ends at 3 p.m. A kickball tournament will begin at North Oak Park at 4 p.m. on Oct. 1.
“Homecoming Kickoff” will be held on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Starting on Monday will be a new addition to the Homecoming Week festivities called “Landmark Hunt,” and this event will continue throughout the week. President of Student Affairs Jim McHodgkins explained how the Student Government Association will conduct the event.
“SGA will tweet out or put on their social pages something on campus, and the students then have to go find it, take a picture of it, take a selfie of themselves, find the thing, and the team will get points for that,” said McHodgkins.
That same day of Oct. 2, “Black Family Reunion” will be hosted by the university’s National Pan-Hellenic Council. According to the university’s NPHC President Timothy Davis, “Black Family Reunion” was started in 2006.
“It’s an event that allows the black organizations on campus to come together and have a great time with food, music, games, Greek role reversal and above all camaraderie,” said Davis. “It also allows us to connect with the alumni that we’ve connected with at some point on our college journey. Even though it is called ‘Black Family Reunion,’ it is surely open to students and alumni from all ethnicities to come enjoy this wonderful event and see how we like to have a good time.”
“LION UP Tuesday!” on Oct. 3 is scheduled with many opportunities for students to get involved in the homecoming festivities. It will feature older events alongside some newer ones. Some reoccurring events will be “Give Back Night” at La Carreta, “Phi Kappa Phi Homecoming Quiz Bowl,” and a blood drive in the War Memorial Student Union roundabout from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. One of the newer additions to Homecoming Week will be “Can You Build It” where student organizations will create sculptures out of canned goods that will later be donated. Following that on Oct. 4, Campus Activities Board will be hosting the annual “Gumbo Ya Ya” at the Student Union Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CAB President McKenzie Tolson explained how “Gumbo Ya Ya” will experience some changes from previous years.
“We’re kind of tweaking it a little bit,” said Tolson. “In the past, it’s been more of a thing where students kind of come and go. They eat the gumbo. They leave. They take the stuff that we have. They leave. But this year, we wanted to make it more about school spirit. We’re going to try and make it more of a spirited tradition. So, we want to have a little pep rally and things like that to make it the same every year and not to start a new tradition, but just tweak it a little bit.”
Tolson expressed that CAB is looking to keep the focus on announcing Homecoming Queen.
“It kind of just became over the years where students get free gumbo and that’s it,” said Tolson. “So, we really want to give it a purpose, make it something important. The fact that we do announce Homecoming Queen there is important.”
Wednesday evening will end with “Minute to Win It” at 7:30 p.m. at Strawberry Stadium. McHodgkins explained how the “Minute to Win It” games got started as a homecoming tradition.
“It’s just been kind of added over the years,” said McHodgkins. “‘Minute to Win It’ was a game that they wanted to play for years. For a while, they did ‘Fear Factor,’ but that got to be pretty bad, so we said things are just trying to get grosser and grosser. So, ‘Minute to Win It’ seemed like a better competition.”
The “Roar Rally” will take place on Thursday, Oct. 5 starting at 6:45 p.m. This will include a spirit competition, bonfire and pep rally at Cook Field.
“The bonfire has always been a big event,” said McHodgkins. “It’s been hosted by numerous groups, and it’s basically like a pep rally type of thing, so that’s been around for a long time.”
During the day of Friday, Oct. 6, Alpha Phi Alpha will host its “Annual Step Show” at the University Center starting at 7 p.m. Before the homecoming game on Saturday, Oct. 7, the Homecoming Parade will start in Friendship Circle at noon.
“The parade has gone on for years,” said McHodgkins. “It’s usually the day of the game, so you’ll travel around campus. The map of where they’ve gone has changed a lot. Right now, we basically go around campus, and it comes out of Friendship Circle.”
According to McHodgkins, some past homecoming traditions have “fallen away.”
“At one point, they did a tug of war,” said McHodgkins. “At one point, there was a bloomer bowl that was played where the girls dressed up like football players and the guys dressed up like cheerleaders. That hasn’t happened probably in a long time. There used to be an event where students would play with faculty and staff in flag football.”
During the homecoming game, the Homecoming Court will be presented during halftime, and the Homecoming Week winners will be announced during the 3rd quarter.