Hounds Come Home!
Greyhounds rallied together for the Homecoming football game on Oct. 5, with the week leading up to it filled with many activities to get students and faculty into school spirit.
The University of Indianapolis Crimsonettes lead the charge onto the field in Key Stadium for the Homecoming football game against Missouri S & T on Oct. 5. (Below) The Greyhounds defeated their opponents 34-3 at the game, which finished off the Homecoming Week series of events.
Homecoming Week officially started on Monday, Sept. 30, with the Homecoming Pep Rally in the Schwitzer Student Center Atrium and the homecoming movie that evening. The rest of the week’s activities included the Hounds through the Decades fashion show, UIndy Family Feud, the Eric Hutchinson concert on Thursday and a 1950s themed dinner.
The week ended with the football game against Missouri S & T on Saturday evening, which the Greyhounds won 34-3.
Homecoming queen Addelyn Ratcliff, a senior music performance major, said that she enjoyed many different events during Homecoming Week, but especially getting to wear the crown.
“My favorite thing would [have to] be running for queen,” she said. “I love all of the other candidates, and it’s been a lot of fun getting to attend everything together. We even made a music video for a remixed version of ‘Royals’ by Lorde. It was so much fun.”
According to Ratcliff, the overall atmosphere was a great thing to experience.
“I’ve also met a lot of people through attending the events,” she said. “And it’s just so awesome to see everyone so energetic and spirited.”
Homecoming itself is a large event to organize and takes a year to plan, according to Student Activities Coordinator Stephanie Barry.
“I’m already thinking of next year now,” Barry said. “It takes a year, and unfortunately we don’t have the dates yet for next year’s Homecoming. You kind of have to strike when the iron’s hot.”
Barry also said that during Homecoming Week, she starts recruiting students to serve on the next year’s Homecoming Committee. By the end of the first semester, the student group is decided upon and everyone convenes in January to begin planning.
“That’s when we begin sitting down, picking a theme, trying to figure out what kind of events we have,” she said. “We have room reservations put in for the year ahead, so everything is done a year in advance—if not more than a year—to plan a homecoming.”
Every year, the Homecoming Committee works to provide a mix between older, traditional activities and newer ones to keep variety and interest. According to Barry, events such as the kickoff are traditional, as well as the pep rally and Homecoming Headquarters, the idea being that these events get students excited.
However, Barry also said that variety is important to keep everyone involved.
“Not everyone likes sports. Being able to offer speakers related to the theme or novelty activities that aren’t focused solely on sports can still get people involved in the spirit. … Being a Greyhound doesn’t mean [just] sports. It’s everything that we are doing here,” she said. “So being able to get everyone excited for their university is going to be different for everybody, and we hope to reach a wide variety.”
