Homecoming brings new traditions, old friends
Homecoming 2006, October 25–29, was a true campuswide celebration. Whether an attendee—and there were more than 3,000 of them, all told—was an alumnus or a student or even an Emory staff or faculty member, the long weekend had something for each of them.
“Lullwater and the rest of campus has come a long way from the days when we were in school,” said Fritz Brown 81C of Atlanta, who was on campus for his twenty-five-year reunion. “It’s really impressive.”
Three undergraduate classes (1976, 1981, and 1991) held reunions during Homecoming, and their get-togethers on Saturday night proved to be one of Homecoming’s highlights.
“I ran into a fellow alumnus at the airport, and he made a point of telling me how great it was,” said Susan Jacobs 91C, a fifteen-year reunion attendee from New York, who admitted to staying out until 3 a.m. Sunday reminiscing with classmates.
The reunions were an exclamation point for a weekend that actually started on Wednesday, October 25, with the renewal of the traditional Wonderful Wednesday. Classes weren’t cancelled, as during Wonderful Wednesday’s heyday from 1967 to 1982, but the entire community took advantage of the occasion to kick off Homecoming in style.
Rain couldn’t dampen the annual Birdies for Eagles Golf Tournament, which drew some one hundred to the Stone Mountain Golf Course on October 27 despite weather more suitable for fish than fowl. Many of the players also attended the Sports Hall of Fame banquet and induction ceremony that night.
Families with young children descended upon the Miller-Ward Alumni House for the Halloween-themed Jake’s Open House (named for Dean of Alumni Jake Ward 33C 36G) the evening of October 27, and students attended a party of a different kind—the annual Homecoming Ball on the Quadrangle.
Saturday, October 28, brought sunny skies just in time for a new tradition, Tavern on the Green at McDonough Field, where students and alumni gathered for a barbecue lunch and concert featuring the alternative band Reel Big Fish.
The food and fun didn’t run out on Sunday, either, as alumni, students, and parents gathered for a pancake breakfast preceding Emory’s women’s soccer game against Case Western Reserve University, a 1–0 win to cap the Eagles’ home season schedule as well as Homecoming 2006.
Next year’s Homecoming Weekend will be September 27 to 30 and will include an expanded reunions program to celebrate the graduating classes of 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, and 2002. Plans are already under way. If you are a member of any of these classes and would like to volunteer to work on the planning committee, email Gloria Grevas at ggrevas@emory.edu.
—Eric Rangus
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