Take a Stroll Back in Time
Homecoming is a University of Minnesota tradition with a long and complex history. A student named Cyrus Kauffman was inspired to suggest that the University of Minnesota institute Homecoming after the success of similar events at other universities, but President Vincent was skeptical about the idea. Despite being initiated by a student, until the 1920s, Homecoming concentrated on alumni and had very limited student support or involvement.
Once Memorial Stadium opened in 1924, Homecoming took off. Students rallied as the community gathered to celebrate the university. During the 1930s and 1940s, due to the Great Depression and World War II, Homecoming hit a lull. Then, when the football team hit a winning streak in the 1960s, the popularity of Homecoming skyrocketed once more.
During the 1970s, there was a lack of enthusiasm for Homecoming due to the Vietnam War. Many events were canceled as students refused to participate until soldiers came home. In the 1980s, excitement replaced apathy as students once again rallied behind the university. Once the football team moved to the Metrodome in 1988, the external community became an integral part of the Homecoming tradition.
Homecoming Traditions
Homecoming Committee
Today, the Student Unions & Activities, Student Events and Entertainment team plans and implements Homecoming, but it was not always so. Originally, alumni planned most of the events, but in 1920 undergraduates started getting involved and created the Homecoming Committee.
The Homecoming Committee started six months in advance planning events that continued university traditions, but also added something fresh and new. The individuals worked around the clock to encourage student involvement and outreach to the fringes of the community. Today, Student Unions & Activities continues its commitment to make Homecoming a community event.
Built in 1899, Northrop Field was the original home of the Gopher football team. Situated just east of the armory, Northrop was an open field with wooden stands that could support up to 20,000 people. Because size was limited, people clamored up light poles and fences to watch the Golden Gophers take on football foes. On the first homecoming game, November 14th, 1914, the stands were overflowing to see the Gophers take on the University of Wisconsin Badgers. Games were held there until Memorial Stadium was constructed in 1924. After the devastating losses of World War I, the University wanted to erect a monument to commemorate members of the university community who gave their lives for the United States. The product was Memorial Stadium, which was built as part of a package deal with Northrop Auditorium to commemorate the University's first president Cyrus Northrop. Today Northrop Auditorium still stands at the head of Northrop Mall. Situated where the McNamara Alumni Center now stands, Memorial Stadium acted as a utilitarian monument to commemorate the brave and inspire a new generation of citizens. Due to the overwhelming enthusiasm and support of the student body, alumni, faculty, staff and general public, a community fund drive succeeded in financing the entire stadium. This community support culminated every fall during the Homecoming game. As royalty was crowned on the field and the marching band took up their horns, 50,000 members of the University community cheered on their alma mater.
Memorial Stadium was torn down in 1992, though the Gophers had stopped playing there in 1989. The Gophers shared the Metrodome with the Vikings for many years before the nostalgia for a home field drove the desire for a new place of communion. After six years of debating and planning for TCF Bank Stadium, ground was broken in 2006. Although the TCF Bank Stadium (now Huntington Bank Stadium) drive was not as momentous as the drive for Memorial Stadium, students still showed their support through donations in addition to corporate gifts and funding from the legislature. In 2009, Homecoming's theme was "The Ultimate Homecoming," as it was the first time in two decades that Homecoming would be on campus. Stadium Village has a stadium once more. Football games are the primary purpose, but Huntington Bank speaks to The University of Minnesota's larger community.
Though stadiums throughout the years have acted as a stage for the Gopher games, they also have functioned as a monument to community where the University can come together for Homecoming to showcase their pride in the Gophers, educational achievements, and the history of the University of Minnesota.
The Homecoming Court began as an all-women competition based on beauty and popularity, but has since evolved into a competition to honor first-rate students who represent the values and mission of the University of Minnesota. In 1932, the first Homecoming Queen was judged based on her button sales, beauty, popularity, and academic standing. She had to be single and part of a sorority. Although rules and guidelines developed over the years, the basic qualifications remained relatively the same until the end of the 1960s. The Homecoming King competition, established in 1951, was meant to highlight an alumnus of the University, not a current student. By the late 1960s, this structure was changing, but it was not until the 1970s that the women's movement and student apathy towards Homecoming changed royalty into the competition we see today.
President Al Heimbach crowning
Homecoming Queen Joan Ozark, 1967 Photograph Courtesy of University Archives
The Homecoming Queen competition was discontinued between 1971 until 1976, when it was reintroduced. This gap was during a time of turmoil at the University. There were two main factors that impacted changes in Homecoming during the early 1970s: First, many students lacked enthusiasm for Homecoming festivities due to the Vietnam War. Second, members of the women's movement argued that the qualifications for the Homecoming Queen were degrading. When it was reintroduced in 1976, the competition was based solely off of athletic ability and was judged by the football team.
This solution was criticized by many, and the following year the competition was again revamped to highlight a woman accomplished in many fields. As of 1978, the Homecoming King became a position that called attention to talented male students at the University.
Although this competition has been plagued over the years with issues of gender, race, and class, today's Homecoming Court is not about brawn or beauty, but how accomplished students of the University community contribute to campus-life. Inclusion is still an issue, but a campus conscious of the University's large, diverse student body now has the ability to nominate royalty that is more representative of the student population.
Besides the frequent changes to parade routes, the Homecoming Parade is a tradition that has remained virtually unaltered since its inception in the 1910s. Originally, entries were accepted based off of button sales and then judged for points that factored into group competitions, a tradition that survives today.
After a brief discontinuation from 1968-1976, the parade returned with pomp and pride. The parade became huge in the 1980s and is one of the largest events in Homecoming today. The inclusive appeal of the parade pervades all departments, student groups, and ages by welcoming community members to showcase their pride and spirit and participate in various socials and activities sponsored by university departments and groups.
Homecoming Dance
The Homecoming Dance was an integral part of the festivities between1914 and the early 2000s, when it gradually was replaced by the Homecoming Concert. The main dance always took place at the end of week of frivolity, but smaller dances, such as the street dance, were sprinkled throughout the week.
The dance was tweaked every decade. During the 1960s, a concert preceded the dance and it included the Queen's coronation. In contrast, during the 1930s the dance was an incredibly formal event with students and alumni. During the 1970s, attendance was low, due to a lack of enthusiasm for Homecoming. This apathy towards the dance continued through the 1980s and 1990s. It was discontinued in 2002. In 2010, Student Unions & Activities brought Kid Cudi to campus and initiated. Homecoming concerts, a tradition that continues today.
Cheer
The first "yell-leaders" appeared on the scene in the mid-1890s. These enthusiastic students hoped to arouse community support at games after a string of losses by the football team. After Jack Campell, a zealous medical student, witnessed the lack of excitement at football games, he organized a group of students to mobilize spirit in order to encourage the team's performance. He was aided by A.O. Rooter, a diehard fan who was disappointed by the lack of student support for the football team. This "rooter club" injected pride and spirit into Homecoming Week.
The original rooters club was open only to men, but women were allowed to participate as of the late 1940s, and by the 1950s pom pom girls appeared on the sidelines. Today, the Golden Gophers Spirit Squads include both women's and coeducational squads. The cheer squads not only keep the players motivated, but keep the community engaged in every Homecoming activity and event.
The Bonfire
Courtesy University Archives
From its inception in the 1930s until the 2000s, the Homecoming festivities intermittently included a bonfire. During both World Wars, the bonfire was canceled due to rationing and an aversion to wastefulness, but returned to campus shortly thereafter. In the 1970s, it was cut due to ecological concerns, but was reinstated in 1976. Sometimes held as a part of the pep fest, cheerleaders, students, alumni and faculty would cheer and chant around an incineration of old discarded materials and a comical idol of Homecoming rivals. The bonfire was permanently removed from programming in 2005 due to lack of participation and concern for student safety.
A variety of artifacts and collages were designed and/or donated in 2014 to celebrate 100 years of Homecoming. Check out the Homecoming Collage by Savina Proykova, the 2009 Back to Stadium collage by Patrick O’Leary, Stadium Tour brochures, the brochure and MN Daily article that features extraordinary player Bobby Bell, the seat cushion donated by Tim McDevitt and other memorabilia that highlights more recent years of homecoming.
Homecoming Collage
This collage features many events and activities that make up the spirit of Homecoming. All images highlight programs that took place between the years of 2010 and 2013. Photographs Courtesy of Black Student Union, Patrick O'Leary, and the Student Unions and Activities digital archive. Designed by U of MN Graduate, Savina Proykova
Homecoming by Decade
This 1960 Seat Cushion was donated by Tim McDevitt, an alumnus of the university. The item holds a special story from Tim that highlights his childhood experience of visiting a homecoming game in 1960 with his father at the Memorial Stadium on campus. His story highlights his father James John McDevitt's special relationship with Bronco Nagurski, a former Gopher football player in the late 1920s who later went on to play for the Chicago Bears.
This Collection, dating back to 1922, was donated by Don Hickman, an alumnus of the University of Minnesota. It contains buttons from many years leading up to 1997. The collection can be viewed in the basement of Coffman Memorial Union and on the Homecoming Buttons page.
This Minnesota Daily Article was written by reporter, Oscar Molomot, to highlight homecoming in the 1930s.
It addresses the year Homecoming began, which was 1914. It notes that 1914 was the first-year that streetcars came about to transfer students across campus, over 100 of them were made. It highlights that most Homecoming alumni events were not a success except for the dance. It also notes that Cyrus Kauffman, all-university council president at the time, made it a point to establish Homecoming, because no other traditions had currently existed. It reveals that “Homecomings” had been improving each year allowing the opportunity for alumni to revisit their undergraduate days at Minnesota.