The History of Homecoming

Homecoming has changed a great deal over time from a time for alumni to “come home” and support their school football team to the semi-formal dance that we know today. Homecoming was a tradition that started back in the eighteen hundreds and the practice has survived and evolved over the two hundred years it's been around.

Homecoming has gone through many changes over the years and, initially, it was a time for the alumni of the school to play a football game against the current team. Which then lead to the alumni coming back to the school to watch the game. Immediately after the game, the students would go to their dance in the clothes that they wore. This eventually changed into the dance being a bit more formal moving it to the day after the game. The game and dance weren't the only traditions involved with homecoming; it also included a bonfire at one point which was used to celebrate a victory or raise morale after a loss. Mrs. Meeker, a student services clerk and a Muscatine High school alumni from 1974, had many things to say about the past traditions of homecoming.

“We still did the senior march but we went from the old high school (Central Middle School) out to Heinz field which is where we played football and we had a hog roast with the pig on the beam,” said Mrs. Meeker.

This shares some similarities to our march today but due to the current high school not being built yet, they went to some interesting locations when compared to our march which is just walking to the riverfront and eating. When asked further about some differences between the traditions of homecoming over the decades she had some interesting information.

“After the march, we would go back to school at around 2:00 p.m. and line up on Cedar Street for our parade and go downtown, then back through town, and eventually go back to school. We had a bonfire out at Heinz field, we also had the powderpuff game out there,” said Mrs. Meeker.

There aren’t too many differences between our celebrations but one of the major changes that has happened is the removal of the bonfire. It seems that this was a favorite of some of the people who got the chance to experience it.

Moving forward in time to the 1980’s, Mrs. Mauck, substitute teacher and drama director, was raised on the west coast and has lots of information on how different the entire homecoming experience can be.

“In my high school, I grew up on the west coast, we did a powderpuff game on Thursday and then the big homecoming football game on Friday, and at half time they introduced the court to the student body and then crowned the king and queen before the second half,” said Mrs. Mauck.

Compared to our way of doing things this is quite different. They chose to do all of the homecoming court announcements and coronation during the football game with nobody knowing the court until the night of the game. And they did their dance a bit differently as well.

“Once the game was over, everyone headed to the gym from the stadium, and everyone was in their clothes from the football game. And we didn't get a chance to make t-shirts so there wasn't anything special to wear other than school colors,” said Mrs. Mauck.

Making another jump forward in the 1990’s Mr. McDonald, math teacher and Muscatine High school alumni, celebrates his homecoming from 25 years ago. When asked to look back on his homecoming experience he said,

Homecoming and its traditions have had a major shift over the years. It started as a way for the alumni of the school to come back and play a football game against the current team, it then just became a normal football game and the alumni would come “home” to watch. It then became a more important event having a parade, a dance, a spirit week, and for some even a bonfire. Over all this time homecoming has evolved with the times to make it a time for students to celebrate their classmates and their school.