Baylor Alumni Association

From Homecoming to the official Class Ring, the Baylor Alumni Association has been central to many of Baylor’s best-loved traditions.

By Todd Copeland

Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas, Baylor University has developed many traditions over the decades while serving as Texas Baptists’ flagship institution—the bear mascot, Diadeloso, and Ring Out, to name a few. And the Baylor Alumni Association, created in 1859, has played a large role in developing and observing Baylor’s traditions—something that anyone would expect between such longtime partners.

The Baylor Alumni Association’s dedication to Baylor’s beloved traditions stems from the belief of its leaders, past and present, that traditions matter deeply to Baylor’s well-being. Whether it’s something that occurs daily, such as Baylor professors’ close interaction with students, or something that happens once a year, like the Freshman Mass Meeting, traditions form the bedrock upon which we build the future of our alma mater.

Incorporated as a nonprofit organization since 1978 and governed by an elected board of alumni volunteers, the Baylor Alumni Association (BAA) is a group of loyal supporters who have come together to keep Baylor strong and to enjoy the bonds of the Baylor family. The alumni of Baylor, through their coordinated involvement in the life of their alma mater, have proven crucial to the university’s vitality and the preservation of its heritage over the decades.

Today, the BAA proudly continues the longstanding tradition at Baylor of alumni independently organizing themselves in a spirit of integrity, transparency, and democracy. “Keeping Baylor strong is a charge taken up by each new generation of graduates out of a sense of pride, privilege, and responsibility,” said Jeff Kilgore, executive vice president and CEO of the BAA. “Our organization is the embodiment of that good old Baylor Line—that unbroken string of graduates stretching back into the nineteenth century—and we remain unflaggingly dedicated to what’s best for Baylor.”

During the course of this year, through a series of four feature stories, the Baylor Line has been celebrating the BAA’s Sesquicentennial in 2009 by telling the story of the alumni association—its history of 150 years of dedicated service to Baylor, its current programs and activities, and the association’s dreams for the future.

In the winter issue of the Line, we explored the BAA’s role in keeping the Baylor family connected, and in the spring issue we looked at how the BAA has supported Baylor’s mission over the past 150 years. The summer issue focused on how the BAA has communicated with alumni over the years, keeping them in touch with one another and telling the Baylor story. In this issue, the spotlight turns to the BAA’s longstanding role as a tradition-starter, tradition-keeper, and tradition-celebrator.

Coming Home

The Baylor Alumni Association was a sponsor of the first Baylor Homecoming, held in 1909. (The Calliopean Literary Society's entry in the 1909 parade is pictured to the right.) The granddaddy of all Baylor traditions, Homecoming has been supported by the alumni association for decades with festivities and class reunions during Homecoming weekend each fall. With this year’s Homecoming marking the one-hundredth anniversary of the event, the BAA is particularly excited about looking back at the history of Homecoming and celebrating its ongoing prominence in the lives of alumni.

The declared purpose of the inaugural Homecoming, according to the invitation sent to all alumni, was “to give an opportunity for the joyful meeting of former student friends, an occasion when old classmates could again feel the warm hand-clasp of their fellows, recall old memories and associations, and catch the Baylor spirit again.” The festivities began on Wednesday, November 24, 1909, with a band concert, followed by a reception hosted by President Samuel Palmer Brooks and an “old-time soirée” in Burleson Hall that evening. A bonfire and pep rally concluded the day’s events.

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, class reunions began at 9 a.m., followed an hour later by a program of speeches by professors, administrators, and alumni, with musical interludes by student groups. At 2 p.m., Baylor launched its first Homecoming parade from the corner of Eleventh Street and Washington Avenue. At the front, the Baylor Band was led by its towering drum major, who, it was reported, was “six feet six in his stocking feet and without his bearskin cap.” Parade entries numbered well over 130, with sixty each of automobiles and carriages, plus student organizations on foot. The vehicles, as noted by the 1910 Round-Up, were “tastefully decorated with green and gold bunting and pennants; some automobiles were even profusely ornamented with yellow chrysanthemums.”

Later in the afternoon, nearly five thousand people—with seniors wearing their caps and gowns—packed the stands of Carroll Field to watch Baylor defeat then-crosstown rival Texas Christian University on the football field by a score of 6-3.

In 1924, the BAA formally established Homecoming as an annual event, with a football game against Texas A&M as the centerpiece. The Bears defeated the Aggies by a score of 15-7 in front of twenty-five thousand fans at Waco’s Cotton Palace field—then the largest crowd in Waco history to watch a football game—on their way to winning their second Southwest Conference championship in three years.

An Ongoing Celebration

Today, as a Homecoming sponsor, the BAA creates and mails a brochure to alumni in the summer that includes a basic Homecoming schedule; early ticket order forms for Pigskin, football, and reunion events; and information about how to order this year’s Homecoming apparel.

One of the primary reasons most alums come home to Baylor, of course, is to reconnect and reminisce with old friends and former classmates, and the BAA is right in the middle of the activity. The BAA produces a printed schedule of events, which is available to alumni when they register their names at the Hughes-Dillard Alumni Center during Homecoming weekend. Reunions begin the Friday of Homecoming with special dinners for the twenty-five-year and fifty-year classes, and they don’t stop until Sunday morning, when the Homecoming Worship Service concludes the weekend’s activities.

Homecoming reunion picnics and class meetings for each five-year class, sponsored by the alumni association, are held on Saturday after the parade and before the game in tents at Floyd Casey Stadium’s Touchdown Alley. In 2008, more than one thousand alumni and friends took part in the picnics. There is plenty of good food, and each reunion class is assigned a separate tent where class members can hold a meeting or just sit around and catch up with old friends.

In addition to maintaining the Homecoming website, where alumni can find a wealth of information about the events to help them plan their Homecoming weekend, the BAA works with KWBU-TV to televise the Homecoming parade, which is believed to be the largest collegiate parade in the nation.

Common Bonds

Throughout its history, the association has helped foster the tradition of alumni’s direct support of Baylor. During the last sixty years, the group has helped raise millions of dollars needed for campus improvements, such as the Student Union Building, Baylor Stadium, and the Hughes-Dillard Alumni Center. And typically, the majority of Baylor’s alumni donors for a given year are members of the alumni association. One of the more recent projects supported by a gift from the BAA is the Immortal Ten memorial (pictured at right), which was installed on campus in the fall of 2007.

The BAA has also long endeavored to help Baylor students become dedicated alumni through enriching their days on campus with memorable experiences and a sense of belonging and responsibility to the greater good of Baylor. On September 14, 1962, the alumni association sponsored the first Freshman Convocation. Dr. George Stokes, the association’s executive director at the time, told the freshmen that the event’s purpose was to “present the freshman class to the official Baylor family and impress upon you, the Class of 1966, that you have joined not only a great student body but also an illustrious line of alumni. You will be a member of the student body for four years, but for the rest of your lives you will be a member of the alumni.”

In 1996, the alumni association helped launch the official Class Ring program, a new Baylor tradition (pictured at left). Students who purchase the official ring are able to participate in a ring ceremony with Baylor’s president, during which the symbols on the ring are explained. Each ring provides a tangible reminder of the impact Baylor makes on every student’s life. More than six thousand alumni have purchased the official Class Ring since its introduction.

The BAA is also a strong supporter of the tradition of multi-generational Baylor families. In 1997, the association created the Legacy program to assist Baylor’s efforts to recruit the children of alumni. Through a combination of gifts for certain birthdays and special communications, the Legacy program encourages the children of alumni to think of Baylor as their school—not just Mom’s or Dad’s.

In addition, the BAA annually awards scholarships to such legacy students, helping to make their and their family’s dreams of a Baylor education become a reality.

Ray Burchette ’57, former executive vice president of the BAA, once wrote of such Baylor traditions, “They give continuity to the lives of the Baylor family; they draw us back after we leave. They are the material for memories that make our time here special. While generations of students come and go, Baylor traditions provide this same connection and continuity for those who pass through—and are changed by—this place.”

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