Great Times
University Daily Kansan, October 9, 1981
Homecoming is pale image of yesteryear
I'M JAYHAWKER BORN AND JAYHAWKER BRED AND WHEN I DIE I'LL BE JAYHAWKER DEAD.
JULIE GREEN/Kensan Staff
Once it was billed as a weekend of 'fireworks, music, speeches, cheers, more speeches and worlds and worlds of pep and entertainment."
By MARK ZIEMAN Staff Reporter
In most respects, recent homecomings are but pale reflections of their relicking ancestors.
Today, as another homecoming rolls around, the biggest concern is whether the KU football team can continue its winning streak.
Gone, for instance, are the days of Hobo Rallies and the evenings of nightshirt parades through the streets of Lawrence.
Gone are the cheering Ku Kus and Jay James, and the impassioned speeches of "Doc Yak", who had the ability to "concact strange mixtures such as will prove absolutely deadly to the 'Aggie Cow' and at the same time act as a toe-warming tonic to the team."
Gone, perhaps; but certainly not forgotten by alumni, the University Archives or the tattered pages of ancient student publications.
During the first homecoming in 1912, an excited student body bustled throughout the week polishing its image, hoping to make a good impression for visiting alumni and the Missouri football team.
"Dont't哭 up the welcome signs that Coach Hamilton has posted over town," besecheed the Kansas, "because we love him and want to be gentlemen and then defeat them!"
Homecoming rolled merrily along until 1916, when it was interrupted by World War I. Students tried to reorganize it in 1918 but were dealt another blow when Lawrence was put under an influenza quarantine.
The pride of the Jayhawks was never vanquished, however, and the students rebounded in 1919 when H.B. Hungerford of the KU entomology department started a museum consider the beginning of the present homecoming tradition at KU.
"Every man, woman and child on the Hill will appear in front of Fraser Hall," advertisements ordered, to see Doc Yak and engage in raucous cheers.
"Boardingroom 'landladies', serve dinner at 12:40, the paper place is a KU
student can be found will be in front of Fraser. This is excepting the sick and dead!"
In 1922, Memorial Stadium was dedicated and the tradition of decorating organized houses began.
In 1945, the Kansas City Times reported a "warm-up" session for KU alumni in a meeting at the Advertising Executive Club in Kansas City, Kan.
Lt. Gen. Ennis Whitehead, an alumnus, spoke passionately on behalf
of the KU soldiers returning from World War II.
"These men don't require coddling," the general said. "They may have been boys when they left, they are men who Don't treat them as children any more."
In 1949, the Ku Ku Klub did its best to solidify school spirit by printing a booklet which included "yells and songs of old KU."
By the end of the 4th, homecoming at KU had calmed down a little, and the campus worked to provide a more mature atmosphere for visiting alumni, forsaking the clowns, boxing matches, sword fights and fireworks of the past.
Presented in the booklet was the legendary cheer, "I'm Jayhawker Born
Also in 1949, the Jayhawk Follies replaced the traditional homecoming parade, and W.D. Baumgartner held a reunion for the KU football team of 1899, which was unscored upon until the final three minutes of its last game.
Homecoming traditions survive despite trends
By DEANNA MILES
Staff Reporter
Homecoming.
The word conjures bonfires and beauty queens, revelry and reunions, parades and pep rallies.
Although some of these traditional homecoming activities have become obsolesce at the University of Kansas, forming spirit still lives on. Or does it?
"I think the feeling is a product of the times," said Bert Coleman, KU student body president. "There's a body of people that in years past
"People are more concerned about themselves. It's the 'me' generation, and people don't like to get into the spirit of homecoming."
THE VALUES OF the people involved have changed, Coleman said. Twenty or 30 years ago, he said, they were more centered on groups.
"If you know everybody and everybody knows you, it's easy to get together and have a big party," he said.
In the late '60s and early '70s, values changed when people became anti-establishment. he said.
and established, he said:
"Values are changing again now," Coleman said. "It's cyclical. Values are going back to, the late '50s."
"But I don't think homecoming will ever be the same because of the sheer number of people. Students are graduating and getting out of school."
Mildred Clodfler, assistant secretary of the University of Kansas Alumni Association, said, "in the late '60s and early '70s, homecoming for students wasn't so much. The trend was doing their own thing. They didn't care that much about tradition."
COLOFELTER POINTED out the revival of the homecoming parade three years ago as proof that the homecoming tradition wasn't dying.
"We were reviving one of the old
traditions," she said, "and it's going to go on."
The parade's comeback was generated by the students, said Ann Eversole, director of the office of student organizations and activities and chairwoman of the Homecoming Committee.
"It would not have happened if the students hadn't wanted it," she said.
Greg Schneack, former student body president, was senior class president in 1978 and played a major role in bringing the backyard back that year.
"The first year the parade was great," said Schnacke, now a law student at the University of Tulsa.
"Campus police said it was the biggest crowd on campus they'd ever had."
Schnack said that he and the group of people who worked to bring the parade back thought it would bring everyone on campus together and would bring a larger crowd to the football game.
"We thought the parade would expand, and it has," he said.
Cara Connelly, assistant director of the Alumni Association, said homecoming and the parade were major attractions for alumni.
The class of 1956 will hold its 25th reunion during homecoming, she said. The Alumni Association will also sponsor its traditional homecoming luncheon, is expected to draw 500 to 800 alumni.
"We used to have a 10-year reunion and 25-40- and 50-year reunions," she said. "Now we have the 25-year reunion during homecoming and the 40- and 50-year reunions later."
IN RECENT YEARS, she said, the classes have been so large that it's not like it was in the '40s and '50s, when everybody knew everybody.
"For a 10-year reunion, the classes are too big," she said. "But the 25- and 80-year reunions have become stronger." And will continue to be strong."
See TRADITION page 6
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