51�鱨վ

By Joe Garvey

More than a dozen events will be held when 51�鱨վ celebrates its 2023 Homecoming during the week of Sept. 18 to 24.

Among them are the Alumni Honors Dinner, the Monarchs Give Back service initiative, tours of the new College of Health Sciences Building, fireworks, sponsored tailgating and other social events and, of course, the football game pitting the Monarchs against Texas A&M University-Commerce. Dozens of University staffers devote many hours to making sure everything runs smoothly.

This is far more elaborate from what Homecoming was when it was reinstituted 23 years ago.

“Obviously, it wasn’t huge that first year back, but I think people were really excited,” said Krista Harrell ’01, ’03, ’12, 51�鱨վ’s associate vice president for alumni relations. In 2000, she was a member of the Student Senate (predecessor of the Student Government Association), which led the effort to bring Homecoming back.

According to the University archives, 51�鱨վ’s first full Homecoming was held in 1938. It featured a formal dance and a football game against the College of William & Mary’s freshman team. But elimination of football at 51�鱨վ and the U.S. entry into World War II in 1941 ended Homecoming celebrations. They were revived in 1955 and centered around a formal dance, a men’s basketball game and the introduction of a Homecoming Queen contest. To boost participation and to create a spirit of pride in the students, a bonfire and a “hot dog trot,” or sock hop, were added in 1956. Originally taking place in the fall, Homecoming moved to February in 1964, and the first Homecoming Parade was introduced in 1968. But due to changes in athletics and a lack of programming interest, the tradition was canceled in 1991.

Harrell recalled that Homecoming organizers researched what other colleges were doing as they planned for its return in February 2000. The theme was "Better Than Ever: Pride 2000," and events over two days included a parade around campus that featured floats, bands and fire trucks; a tailgating party and William & Mary “car-bashing;” a spirit fire at Elizabeth River (now Whitehurst) Beach; and basketball games against W&M, the women at the Field House and the men at Scope in downtown Norfolk.

“I do have a pretty clear memory of being down on the court for the (Homecoming) court recognition and looking in the seats and seeing my family,” Harrell said. “It was kind of cool because it was huge when you’re a 20-year-old kid.”

She also rode in the parade and helped build a float.

But 51�鱨վ was a commuter school at the time, and the fact the men’s basketball game was played off campus made it “feel like you’re in somebody else’s house.”

However, it still made an impact.

“It was steps in the direction of, ‘This is what we need. This is who we are,’” Harrell said.

The opening of the Ted Constant Convocation Center in 2002, which brought the Homecoming men’s basketball game to campus, and the return of football in 2009 gave a boost to the celebration.

“It’s a big deal to see all these people come back and see all these reunions planned around it and to see it really be a tradition that people are used to,” Harrell said. “You come home and you come back to campus and you come and celebrate for the weekend. And to meet and connect and feel like you’re still part of the community and feel like you still belong. And hopefully continue to leave a legacy here because everybody who comes back adds to the energy and excitement on campus.”

This will be Harrell’s first Homecoming at 51�鱨վ in her current position – “It’s really such a full-circle thing,” she said – and the Alumni Relations office is sponsoring many of the events.

“I want these Homecomings to be opportunities not just for the people who have come back for the last 20 years,” she said, “but for people that haven’t come back in 40.”

Pictured above: Students vote for the Homecoming king and queen in 2000. 51�鱨վ Libraries Photo