Following Traditions: A History of SEMO’s Homecoming

Every year, SEMO students, alumni, families and guests line the streets from Broadway to Main to watch the annual homecoming parade, and later fill the stands of Houck Stadium in red and black gear to support the Redhawks at their homecoming game.This is a tradition that has continued throughout the years, but where did it really begin?

According to the SEMO website, Southeast began to celebrate homecoming in the 1920s. This decision was inspired by The University of Missouri, who started the celebration of Homecoming in 1911.

SEMO’s Homecoming events consist of tailgates, a football game, and a parade, with other events for alumni and students interspersed throughout the day.

Homecoming is put on by the Alumni Association and Campus Life in an attempt to bring back former students and reunite them with old friends.

Alumni are heavily celebrated during homecoming week; with events such as the Copper Dome Society and Alumni Awards Ceremony; Alumni Grab n’ Go Breakfast; Class Reunions and the Alumni Tailgate.

“We want [alumni] to see that campus has grown and changed, but it is still the same place. Students are still going through what they once went through. We want them to come back and renew their love for the University each year,” Director of Alumni Relations George Gasser said.

A large part of Homecoming is the involvement of organizations, especially Greek Life organizations who spend many hours creating floats for the parade.

According to the SEMO website, “Over 600 hours of construction go into the completion of some of the largest floats that are entered into the parade.”

Freshman business administration major Lainey Busateri, a member of SEMO’s ADPI sorority, explained her involvement in homecoming.

“As someone involved in Greek Life, we compete with other fraternities and sororities in pairs for games that add up on a point system to see who wins homecoming,” Busateri said. “Some of the activities we have done so far are a pep rally with games, a pumpkin designing contest, a dance, a minute to win it game, and a banner competition. Our float for the parade is another big portion of it.”

A yearly tradition at the annual homecoming football game’s halftime is the crowning of Man and Woman of the Year. According to the SEMO website, this event started as the crowning of the Sagamore Queen and was changed to Woman of the Year in 1988, meaning the last time a homecoming “queen” was crowned was in 1987.

Today, Man and Woman of the Year gets students involved by encouraging them to vote for the student they feel deserves the position most.

“It was an awesome experience to be voted as the 2017/18 SEMO Man of the Year. I not only got to represent my fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, but also being in student government, the cheer squad, and other organizations I was involved with,” SEMO alumni and 2017 Man of the Year Juan Salas said.

The effects of winning Man of the Year helped Salas to contribute more to his community.

“It really had a good effect on me because it helped me to figure out who I was in the community and encouraged me to continue doing, and to do more for the community,” Salas said.

To learn more about SEMO’s homecoming, check out the event calendar created by the SEMO alumni association.