The traditional homecoming football games started at Central Michigan University in 1924. Though the football game tradition was new, the idea of bringing alumni back to Central was familiar.

Before 1924, alumni were invited back to the college during an “academic homecoming,” which took place in the springtime near graduation. As time passed, the popularity of homecoming football games rose in the Midwest, inspiring CMU.

According to the Clarke Historical Library, the first homecoming game was on November 22, 1924. The night before, people kicked off the new homecoming celebrations with a bonfire and pep rally that went into the night.

The next day, the football team went to the field to play Alma College and beat them 13-0. During halftime, students dressed as one big dragon and snaked onto the field, giving Central the new nickname “the dragons” for a few years.

After that, the new homecoming football game tradition was a success, creating many new traditions. Bryan Whitledge, the public services librarian for the Clarke Historical Library, explained some of CMU’s traditions.

“There’s only two things that have stayed the whole time: the football game, and the band,” Whitledge said about ongoing school traditions.

Now we have Maroon Ambassadors, but it wasn’t always this way. One of the traditions Whitledge talked about was homecoming queens. Often elected for their hard work and dedication to the school, homecoming queens began to find a place in the homecoming celebration in the late 1940s.

Jean “Scotty” Chisholm was elected the first Central homecoming queen in 1946. Since then, the election of a homecoming queen continued until 1997 when CMU switched to Gold and Maroon ambassadors.

Homecoming kings were not present on campus until 1982. Prior to 1982, only homecoming queens were elected, but men wanted to participate. According to Clarke Historical Library archives, starting in the mid-1950s, and ending in the 1980s, the character “Elvira Scratch” would make an appearance in the homecoming queen race every year.

Every year, a man would put on a long skirt, a mop head for blonde hair, and poorly done makeup and pretend to be the famous “Elvira Scratch.” All of this was meant to garner votes from the running homecoming queens.

Though Scratch never won, the character made a comeback year after year until the 1980s when the first homecoming king was introduced.

Though many traditions have come and gone since the beginning of CMU homecomings, Whitledge says its purpose has stayed the same.

“The homecoming is an alumni event,” Whitledge said. “It has things for our current students, but it is an alumni event.”

Homecoming this year

Jacey Hutchins is the event coordinator with the Office of Student Activities. She has been working to plan and organize this year’s homecoming events.

Eight students on the committee have been working alongside Hutchins to plan CMU homecoming. These students are as follows:

Rock Rally Committee: Jenna Steeb and Emma Apap
Events & Activities Committee: Christian Dunn
Competitions Committee: Evelyn Matthias and Kiersten Judge
Marketing Committee: Melo Ellis and Shayla Lindquist
Parade Committee: Pushpa Talluri

Hutchins said that after the pandemic, events took a decline. With fewer students on campus and a long period of not being able to host events, some traditions were lost but are now coming back.

“I think our events change with our student population, knowing what kind of things our student body wants to see ... what things stick, what events don’t get as much traction, and just adjusting,” Hutchins said.

Monday and Tuesday of this year’s homecoming week was students’ gentle break, so those on the homecoming committee are finding ways to work around that despite lots of students not being on campus.

“It’s really going to look different this year,” Hutchins said. “So we’re just trying to really provide different online and like virtual events or competitions for students, just to get as much engagement as we can throughout the whole week.”

For her, homecoming events are intended to get students involved on campus.

“There’s always a lot of things going on, and kind of just get students (to take) a break from their everyday school work life, and get an opportunity to try new things on campus, meet new people (is important), Hutchins said. “It’s really important to get them involved and have a good time. And like enjoying homecoming for what it is, enjoying CMU and just appreciating CMU.”

“It’s just like a week of fun,” Hutchins said. “It kind of is like different from our everyday lives. I just love getting the community and our campus together.”

The events this year include: