Homecoming Traditions from Former High School Students

by Sarra Murphy

Homecoming is an American tradition that has been around for decades. This tradition is usually tied to a football game and suggests that alumni return to the school for a celebration. 

For a high school homecoming, it often means a week of activities that ends with a dance.

Over the years, homecoming traditions have come and gone, and they often differ from school to school. At DWHS the schools traditions are to have a spirit week where the students, teachers, and staff dress up in a certain theme, and the class with the most participation gets the most spirit points. During the week, the student council plans fun activities that go with each dress up day One of the dress up days was western day, so the theme-related games involved roping a football dummy.

Going back to 1995 at Elwood High School, Ben Murphy, parent of Emma and Sarra Murphy, has great memories of his homecoming. At his homecoming there were about 100 people at the dance and the theme of it was Love you for Life Homecoming 1995. He said back when he was in school, homecoming  was a big deal. Students spent the whole day before decorating for it, and it took months of planning, and other groups of students ran the group of students putting it together. 

Murphy thinks that homecomings have changed because of the food, drinks, long dances, how many people go to it (even the teachers), and the king and queen dances have changed. When he went to his homecoming he wore slacks and a nice shirt.  Some of their homecoming traditions that they had at Elwood were that they had spirit week then a big pep rally on Friday. Some dress up days that they had for spirit week were gender swap day and a day when other students could buy other students to carry their lunch trays and or carry their books.  

Lisa M. Collins Murphy, parent of Emma and Sarra Murphy, attended Midway High School, where she was a senior in 1999-2000. When Murphy attended her homecoming dance it he was in the school cafeteria and there were around 100 people there.  They didn't have a theme. They just decorated their homecoming by the team they were playing. Murphy said the dances have changed throughout the years because kids were not afraid to get out and dance and have a good time. Unlike now when people are afraid to be judged.  A dress and sandals is what Murphy wore to her homecoming dance. The traditions at Midway were to take the whole week and decorate the entire hallway and participate in fun activities. The classes each had a section of the hallway to decorate, and the games were scooter races, and a three legged race in the big gym.  The whole high school was involved said Murphy. They all shut down from doing their school work and focused on homecoming.

Breanna Simpson, who is a junior at Troy High School, said their homecoming dance was held  in the old gym in the Troy high school. About 80 people attended at their homecoming dance and the theme of was TroyStory.  Simpson said that many of the students dressed up for the dance, and she wore a blue two piece with lace on the top and a diamond encrusted belt.

For the traditions of Troy they have a parade, then they do powder puff, and have a bonfire at the end, the day before homecoming.  “We went up town and decorated the windows on Main Street, and we created floats for the parade and each class decorated their own hallways. About fifty percent of our high school was involved during homecoming week,”Simpson said. 

Similar to DWHS are homecoming traditions in Hiawatha,  Abigail Lowe, who is a cheerleader there said the dance was held in the commons area of the high school.  Lowe said about half of the high school was at the dance, but they don't usually have a theme for their dances.  Lowe agreed that homecoming dances have changed because of the people surrounding you. Some years it has been really fun because everyone there was just enjoying themselves and having a blast but some have also been kinda boring because no one got into it.

Lowe said she wore a formal dress, not as fancy as a prom dress but more fancy than a regular everyday dress. The traditions for Hiawatha’s homecoming week is that they have bonfire games the night before homecoming, which is like having a whole bunch of mini games on the football field and then they have a huge bonfire and the cheerleaders and dancers do a bunch of cheers, and then on the day of homecoming they have a big parade.

For decorating,all of the classes got a theme and then they decorated their hallways by grades.  They earned points by decorating their hallways and they also earned points for their floats that they make for the parade, and lastly they get points for spirit days and for the game attendance.Lowe said that they all get pretty involved during homecoming week and it’s such a fun time.

Going back to 1961, Mrs. Twombly, junior high teacher, told about her homecoming at Highland High School.  Her homecoming was held at the college football field in Highland, and around 350 people attended..

Mrs. Twombly said that her homecoming didn't have themes, that they just decorated it with random decorations. She thinks the dances have changed because of what kids wear and the dances are shorter. It has also changed over time because students have gotten more casual and music has changed.

A “full” green dress with black flats is what Mrs. Twombly wore to her homecoming.  She said that all the girls wore can-cans under their dresses. Some of the traditions at her school were that after the football game the king and queen rode in convertibles around the field while the announcer introduced them. After the king and queen got chosen the queen, princess, and the king,if he didn't play football, would sit on a throne to watch the game.

For decorating during Mrs. Twombly’s homecoming week, students hung posters around the school about the opposing team but they didn't have any dress up days. They also had a short parade with the band,. When it was homecoming week the whole school was involved and they were super excited.  Before the game the coach gave a pep talk and introduced the whole team. At the football game the pep club would help cheer with the cheerleaders because there was so many of them. Mrs. Twombly’s school burned down in 1975 so they lost all yearbooks and pictures, so all they have left is their memories to remember their homecoming.

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