The University of Indianapolis Homecoming Parade, one of the many homecoming festivities leading up to the football game, started at 4 p.m. on Oct. 8. The parade lasted for about a half hour, starting behind the Schwitzer Student Center, continuing down Campus Avenue past the dorms to Hanna Avenue and ending in front of Key Stadium.
Representatives of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and UIndy Campus Police Department led the parade. Then came the cheerleaders, cheering the Greyhounds on for the win. The parade also featured the pep band, homecoming court, floats made by representatives of the residence halls and RSOs and other community organizations. Because the parade’s theme was “Out of this World,” most of the floats had a space theme.
The Collegiate National Association for Music Education’s float featured the solar system. Junior music education major and NAfME Collegiate President Shaina Liv Lescano said they got the inspiration for their float from music.
“We thought about “Out of this World,” and one of the most iconic pieces that involves space is ‘Mars,’ which is part of ‘The Planets,’ by Gustav Holst,” she said. “And so we did planets theme. So we pretty much just put the solar system on our golf cart.”
Their float had planets hanging from the top around the golf cart. Lescano said they used streamers around the planets to represent space and had the sun on top of the golf cart.
“We used crate paper, known as streamers, styrofoam balls, and then the sun is made out it’s like a styrofoam half ball thing that has tissue paper taped onto it,” she said. “And then we have a styrofoam wig head that we painted green to look like an alien.”
As an extension of their float, NAfME Collegiate had some of its members marching behind the float playing music.
“They’re going to play some ‘Star Wars’ stuff,” Lescano said. “We couldn’t find any Gustav Holst arrangements. So that’s still pretty fun.”
Another of the golf cart floats was made to look like the Magic School Bus. It was created by representatives of Cravens Hall and featured not only a float, but people to accompany it dressed as the show’s characters.
“It’s a great 90s show from [our] childhood,” said graduate student in strategic leadership and design Kyle Johnson. “And our costumes are representing some of the characters. [For example,] we have Miss Frizzle…. We thought it [the float] would represent the fun energy of Cravens Hall in general.”
Johnson said they made the float out of yellow spray-painted cardboard and construction paper. Cravens’ float also featured dry ice at the back of the golf cart, to give the float the appearance of having rocket boosters.
The Biology Club also had a float in the parade. According to sophomore biology major Jayme Hambleton, it took Biology Club members about six hours to create their float, which looked like a space rover.
“[We made it out of] a lot of cardboard and . . . shiny fabric,” Hambleton said.
She said they got the idea by thinking about what they could do that was “sciencey,” and a rover was suggested. The driver of the Biology Club’s rover wore a space suit, to complete the space theme.
The parade also featured a “Space Jam” float from Crowe Hall, a Pizza Planet and Buzz Lightyear float from UIndy Dance Marathon, a float that looked like Wall-E from the Student Organization of Latinos, an “Angels in the Endzone” float from Central Hall, an “Up” float from Warren Hall and a “UIndy Circle K Mourns Pluto” float.
Also marching in the parade were the Circle City Sidewalk Stompers Clown Band, and the Prison Greyhound volunteers, who were walking about 10 greyhound dogs. President Robert Manuel also rode in a convertible, showing his support.
Sophomore pre-med major Laura McKee attended the parade.
“Honestly, [I came] because I wanted candy,” McKee said, “but also because a lot of my friends are RAs, and they’d been building these floats [and] spending a lot of time on them.”
McKee said she enjoyed the parade and thought it was a lot of fun.
“It was super-fun seeing everyone dressed up and everything,” she said.
Freshman nursing major Bailey Lannan also attended the parade after hearing about it from her RAs. She said she thought it looked like fun, and she enjoyed it.
“I always love seeing the police officers and the military coming out,” Lannan said. “And the floats were really interesting, because they decorated them.”
Lannan said her favorite float was the Biology Club’s space rover. McKee liked Warren’s “Up” float.
“I really liked Will [Parslow],” McKee said. “He dressed like Russell, from ‘Up,’ and it was the cutest thing.”
Both women planned on attending the UIndy football game against McKendree University later that evening in Key Stadium. During halftime, Stephen Price and Gracynn Jennings were crowned Homecoming King and Queen.
