Around this time, most North American black bears would be preparing for their hibernation. However, here at Baylor our bears, Lady and Joy, are stretching out and getting ready for the best weekend of the year: Homecoming!
The festivities started off on Wednesday with an All-University worship service featuring Josh Wilson on Fountain Mall and continued on Thursday with Freshman Mass Meeting. Freshman Mass Meeting is an event to learn the history of the Immortal Ten, ten basketball players and team support personnel who were killed in a bus accident on route to a victory against UT on January 22, 1927.
Friday night is when the fun really starts up. Pigskin Revue has two performances that evening, providing an opportunity for Baylor fans to see the top eight performances from All-University Sing the previous spring. Throughout the evening, Extravanganza fills Fountain Mall with green and gold. This is when the alumni come back to campus, the little children are decked in Baylor gear, and students get to celebrate this great university. My favorite part is not the huge ferris wheel, the delicious food, the free concert, or the green and gold fireworks over Pat Neff Hall. Every year, I am captured by the heat and size of our bonfire.
The bonfire tradition started in 1946 when freshmen would place small fires around the edge of campus to keep certain College Station students from vandalizing Baylor or kidnapped the then-mascot, Chita. All of bonfires were eclipsed Friday night of homecoming with the Extravaganza flames, and now it is the only bonfire lit and the climax of my homecoming experience.
Me at the bonfire. Sic ’em Bears!
Saturday morning starts off with a bang as the nation’s largest and oldest homecoming parade kicks off in downtown Waco and comes through campus along 5th Street. This year, keep an eye out for Admissions and Campus Visits; we’ll be there in our green polos and awesome shuttles! There are also floats, homecoming queen nominees, and student organizations walking the route. This year, homecoming will conclude with the 2:30pm kickoff against the University of Kansas down at Floyd Casey stadium. Of course, we’re going to win.
None of these events could be possible without the dedication of the Baylor University Chamber of Commerce. They have put months of planning and hard work into this one weekend to ensure that everyone has the best homecoming experience possible. Thank you, Chamber!!
To me, homecoming is more than just a fun weekend to hang out with friends. It is an opportunity to fling our green and gold afar. We come together as the Baylor Nation. In the words of alumn Robert Griffin III, “We are Baylor, Baylor we will always be.”