Centennial Celebration

Homecoming 2009 is a special one. It was exactly one hundred years ago that Baylor held its first Homecoming celebration, on Thanksgiving weekend of 1909. A band concert and an “old-time soirée” launched the festivities, which also included class reunions, a parade, and a football game.

The 2009 Homecoming, on October 23-25, will have all of that—and so much more. There are still musical events—Pigskin Revue, Cabaret, and Singspiration. There’s still a soirée, or evening party, with Friday night’s Extravaganza and the bonfire on campus. There are numerous class reunions on both Friday night and Saturday. There’s still the ever-popular parade, one of the largest in the nation. And then there’s the football game, with Baylor alumni always hoping for a repeat of 1909, when Baylor was victorious.

The Baylor Alumni Association will be hosting class reunions for each class having a five-year anniversary—this year it’s classes whose years end in “4” or “9.” The fifty-year and twenty-five-year classes will have dinners on Friday night. All reunion classes will have a reunion picnic in Touchdown Alley at Floyd Casey Stadium before the football game. Reunion classes will have their own tents in which to gather, but alumni from all class years are welcome at the picnic.

A hundred years ago, Baylor sent out an elaborate invitation and conducted an advertising campaign to alert alumni to the upcoming event. Although the alumni association does send out a Homecoming flyer in the summer, these days Homecoming Central is located on the World Wide Web.

Tickets to all Homecoming events, whether sponsored by the university or the alumni association, are available on the Homecoming website. All Homecoming activities are listed there.

You are invited to return to campus, enjoy, and, as the 1909 invitations said: “renew former associations and friendships, and catch the Baylor spirit again.”