Roll Out the Hoopla

[akirlu]

For those in Seattle, NB that this weekend is University of Washington Homecoming, including the homecoming game tomorrow. Travel routes that do not bisect the U District are probably advisable.

For those who paid better attention during their How To Be American lessons than I did, can someone tell me exactly who is supposed to be coming home during Homecoming, and from where (...and why)? I know I was roped into helping with a homecoming float at some point during high school, and still I have no idea what the point in this particular ritual of autumn is supposed to be.

Comments

Homecoming

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia sez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homecoming) homecoming started at Baylor, in Texas, and it was originally more like Midland's homecoming -- alumni, parents, current students, all getting together.

More recently -- such as at Arroyo High in El Monte, where I went at first -- homecoming seems tied to, "the first game after the first road trip." (and usually in football) All hail the travelling heroes on their return, etc.

My suspicion is, traditions vary in the usual patchwork quilt way.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd known about the UW game Potlatch weekend last year, when I tried to get into Seattle.

The Wikipedia article suggests that the word refers to an alumni reunion. That was certainly not the case at my high school. I don't know if my college had a football game called the homecoming game or not (I never paid any attention to college sports), but there was a game to which alumni flocked: it was the annual game versus our traditional rival, held in alternate years at each school. It was called "The Big Game," rather unimaginatively, and featured its own traditions which were rather unlike those of homecomings.

What I was told in high school was that the homecoming game was the home game after the last away game. On reflection, though, this doesn't make much sense, as in any given year half the schools by this rule couldn't have one.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean Potlatch. I meant Foolscap.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

You went to Cal, did you?

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Sports fans call it that. We non-sports types call it UC, or just Berkeley.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I know plenty of non-sports types who call it Cal. (Among other things.) I'm one of them.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

And there are people at Worldcons these days who call it sci-fi.

Not in my day they didn't, not very many, not once they'd picked up what was a genuine class shibboleth.

I can provide period documentation that this distinction was observed, if necessary.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I don't have a Wiki entry, and IANAJ (I am not a Jock), but I always assumed it was the last home game of the season. The "homecoming" in this case refers to the alumni. It's their last chance to see this year's team, and usually the school schedules a game with a major rival and/or a game with Bowl implications. For some, it's a big deal, with Pep Squad and Cheerleaders and fundraising...

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no that cannot be right -- it happens way too early in the football season to correspond to the last home game. That's been true everywhere I was that had a football team. Likewise, it happens too late in the season to be the first home game.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

The number of homecoming games I've been to remains at 0, so I get all my information from The Usual Sources: TV, movies. It's The Big Game, the one Patty Duke has to tutor the Star Fullback so he can pass the math test and be eligible to play. Aside from placement on the schedule, I'll stick with the rest of my comment. It's a slightly better than usual excuse for drunken frat boys to cause trouble.

Our Math Team didn't have a Homecoming, though we did win some very nice reference books.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I always thought it was originally alumni coming home but in modern practice was just some game picked for a convenient date. My very vague memories are that homecoming games in Minnesota were usually in October, rather early in the season. I could ask my brother-in-law who might actually know.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Originally it was the weekend alumni came home, but even by the time I was in high school it had changed to just being another home game with parades and floats. Oh, and Homecoming Queens.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

And don't forget that teams usually schedule weak teams to play against for their homecoming game to increase the odds that everyone goes home happy, the parties afterward don't seem incongruous, and the alumni donate more money.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It's an excuse for the alumni to come back, which lets the administrtion hit them up for money, since football is "the" sport more people care about, this is the game that gets used to highligt the occasion.

It's usually (in my experience) tied to the first game at home, after the team has played away, though I know some schools which use the first home game.

I suspect it is early in the season to keep a crappy one from damping generosity.

TK