Homecoming

It’s Homecoming at the University of Missouri.🐯 Bring on House Decs, tailgates, a spirit 🎉rally, and the parade. Students have spent weeks preparing the floats and banners to welcome fans and alumni. The energy and enthusiasm on campus are palpable. 🤩You’ve probably been a part of a Homecoming celebration before, but did you know that Mizzou invented Homecoming? That’s right!

It all started in 1911 when Chester Brewer, Mizzou’s 🏈football coach and athletic director, invited alumni to the Missouri-Kansas 🏈football game. That game was previously held in Kansas City, Missouri, and generated big crowds. Brewer worried that fans might not make the trip to Columbia when conference games switched to be played on college campuses. So, he lured alumni with an invitation to “come home.” A crowd of 9,000-plus did just that.💛🖤

Other universities claim the first Homecoming. It kind of depends on your definition of Homecoming. If your definition is simply a 🏈football rivalry, then it’s the Harvard-Yale games dating back to 1875. If it’s a game played against alumni, it’s the University of Michigan Alumni Games, which started in 1897. Indiana University began Gala Day for the game against Purdue in 1909, with no parade until 1958. Baylor and the University of Illinois also claim the start of Homecoming. If it means 🏈football, 🎉pep rallies, alumni, parades, and all of the campus celebrations culminating over one weekend in the fall, then it has to be 🐯Mizzou.

I attended MU. Our youngest daughter is currently a 🐯Tiger. It was fun to revisit the Homecoming festivities of my college days with her- seeing it again through fresh eyes. 😍There’s warmth. Familiarity. 🥰Fondness for my old memories as we made new ones. It felt like…well, home.

That feeling of home doesn’t have to revolve around 🏈football games and marching bands, though. It can be your childhood bedroom. The smell of your grandmother’s 🍌banana bread. Strolling down your favorite street. A cup of hot cocoa by the 🔥fireplace. Watching sunrises and sunsets. Listening to your favorite 💿album. Holding hands. Your favorite people in one room. Beaches and mountains. The first snowfall. The corner of your couch and a book.💕

Homecoming isn’t about a place or an event. Homecoming is about emotion. It’s peace and love. It’s comfort and comfortable. It’s wistfulness and joy. 🥰 Take the time to celebrate your own Homecoming.💖