Ouachita has invited alumni to return to campus for Homecoming festivities for more than 70 years now, and Homecoming week is lauded as one of the school’s most iconic traditions. This weekend, thousands of Tigers past and present will gather on campus for football, OcTiger Fest, Tiger Tunes and more. But the tradition of welcoming alumni back home predates any of Ouachita’s festivities.
Football games centered on alumni began at the end of the 19th century, when multiple universities claim they held the first homecoming game. However, the official title of the first modern homecoming is credited to the University of Missouri. Missouri’s football coach at the time, Chester Brewer, asked alumni of the school to “come home” in the fall of 1911 to christen the school’s new football field as they played against the University of Kansas. Brewer helped prepare a weeklong celebration full of parties, pep rallies and parades, and more than 10,000 alumni of the University of Missouri attended the football game at the end of the week.
Though some homecoming festivities predate this one, the 1911 homecoming celebrations at the University of Missouri provided a model of what a week of festivities welcoming alumni back to campus could look like. The idea caught on and was commonplace on college and university campuses across the United States by the 1920s. Homecoming events typically followed the precedent Brewer and the University of Missouri had set—throughout the week leading up to the football game, colleges and universities would hold pep rallies and spirit events and invite the community to participate by putting on parades. Alumni would be invited to receptions reuniting them with classmates, and they would be encouraged to attend the game once the festivities ended. Schools often announced a homecoming queen and her court, typically voted as queen by the student body, before the football game.
Homecoming was established as a Ouachita tradition in 1935.
The Ouachita Homecoming we know today incorporates several traditional elements with new ones. Arguably the most anticipated homecoming event is one unique to Ouachita—Tiger Tunes. The musical show features Ouachita’s social clubs and student organizations picking a theme and creating a five-minute show that changes the lyrics of popular songs to fit their theme. The Ouachita Student Foundation established Tiger Tunes in 1979 with the intent of using ticket sales to fund student scholarships. OSF is now preparing to present its 38th annual Tiger Tunes, and the scholarship money raised by the show has allowed countless students to continue their Ouachita journey since its inception. In the years since it was started, the show has grown and is performed for four sold-out audiences over three nights.
Students are also encouraged to celebrate their Ouachita roots throughout homecoming week with events like homecoming chapel and the Purple Plaza Party. The Purple Plaza Party takes place on the Friday of homecoming week, and clubs and organizations from across campus are present to provide snacks, drinks and celebration. The homecoming court is presented here before the homecoming queen is crowned before Saturday’s football game.
Activities such as these serve several purposes in the homecoming traditions of colleges and universities – they lend themselves to heavy involvement from the existing student body and encourage alumni to return to campus.
As students become involved in the festivities at schools across the country, they create memories and connections with other students.
After graduation there, is a desire to return to campus, recapture those memories and re-connect with fellow alumni.
“Ouachita is just such a special place—it’s like coming home,” said Nancy Hannon, a 1991 Ouachita graduate. “Coming back now, there’s a lot of generational stuff. A lot of people that I went to school with now have kids here or have had kids here. One of the things that I’ve noticed is that there’s a lot more parents and grandparents coming back.”
Often when we think of homecoming, we think of a football game and a Homecoming Queen and her court. As we can see, homecoming is much more than that. It is a time for students to grab hold of their college years and make lasting memories. It is a time for the university to showcase its current student body and campus accomplishments. It is a time for alumni to return home, recall their college experience and share in the new experiences of their alma mater.
As senior offensive lineman Jordan Sharp put it, “There is nothing like homecoming at Ouachita.”
By Katie Kemp, News Editor
