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Engineers work on Homecoming Float
Engineers work on Homecoming Float
Tens of thousands of screaming fans gathered to cheer on Oklahoma football players as they beat a team from the north at the end of a week of celebrations of Sooner spirit.
Sound familiar? That isn’t a reference to last year’s Homecoming weekend, when OU played Missouri, or a prediction about Saturday’s game against Kansas. It was what The Daily wrote about Homecoming in 1958, when 57,000 fans watched the Sooners shut out Missouri 39-0.
The weather was a factor during Homecoming week 50 years ago, just as it was this year.
“Despite wind, rain and milling crowds of people the float construction went on…in order to have floats ready for judging,” The Daily reported on Nov. 18, 1958.
Rain didn’t dampen spirits this week, either, although it forced a postponement of the sidewalk chalk competition from Wednesday to Thursday.
Competitions have become a bigger part of Homecoming week festivities. Once, there were just three events: a pep rally, a parade and the game, but now the week is filled with competitions in events like banner-painting, sidewalk-chalking and dancing.
As the number of competitions has increased, the nature of them has changed too. In 1958, one of the highlights of Homecoming Week was the Big Turtle Race, which had different student groups racing live turtles on campus.
Homecoming began in 1920, and in 1956 the Campus Activities Council took control of the planning, Kristen Partridge, Director of Student Life, said in an e-mail.
It has evolved into a large week-long event with elaborate themes. In the past, individual groups chose their own themes, despite a university-wide theme.
The Daily reported on Nov. 15, 1958 that the Chi Omega Sorority chose a theme of “Tramp Missouri” while the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority chose “We Sphinx We Will Win,” for its Homecoming decorations. The campus-wide theme was “Wide Wide World” in honor of OU alumni.
Today participating groups agree on a central theme. This year’s theme is “Once Upon a Time in Soonerland,” drawing from the tales in storybooks.
Burey said the theme was chosen in February Some of the other ideas included cartoons, the Olympics, Broadway, movies and decades in history.
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firefly 3 years, 7 months ago
We'd like to see some news about who won the homecoming events and queen/king.