By SHANNA GHAZNAVI
From baby contests to lawyers in boxers, pancake breakfasts to theme dances, BYU Homecoming has it all — and it always has.
Once upon a time, when the homecoming dance was held in the Smith Fieldhouse and the Homecoming Spectacular was called the Fieldhouse Frolic, couples would have to walk through the mens’ locker room to get to the dance or performance.
“It took all the romance out it,” said Doug Thayer, a BYU English professor who attended BY High and then entered BYU in 1948.
When men would ask women to the homecoming dance, Thayer said, there was “no creative nonsense — just a phone call” or a simple request in class.
Thayer also recalled painting the Y with lime and water.
“We carried lime up in buckets,” he said. With two lines of students, one passing buckets up, the other tossing them down, whitewashing the Y was still a tough job, Thayer said.
“I remember doing it once in the rain,” he said.
Bruce W. Jorgensen, a BYU English professor, said he remembers a beard growing contest during Homecoming week when he was a student at BYU. Jorgensen attended BYU from 1962 to 1966 and has taught at BYU since 1975.
Of course,homecoming would be incomplete without a football game.
Richard Salazar, assistant professor in the Health Science Department, said “I remember now and then we’d have big cages and if any BYU student was caught wearing red at a Utah game they were thrown in ‘jail’ for a couple of hours.”
Salazar came to BYU as a student in 1956 and he has taught at BYU since 1963.
Salazar said Virgil Carter, BYU quarterback from 1964 to 1966, had a true BYU experience at Homecoming.
Carter, Salazar said, approached the Homecoming Queen after his first football victory and said the team had won it for her. Carter and the Homecoming Queen started to date and were married soon after, Salazar said.
The J. Reuben Clark Law School has had an entry in the Homecoming parade since 1976, said Carolyn Stewart, administrative assistant at the law school. For the first few years, the law school’s entry was an ambulance chase: law students would run behind an ambulance carrying a briefcase and waving their arms.
Since the 1980s, the law school has adopted the more dignified “Briefcase Brigade” as its parade entry. The law students wear attire fitting to an attorney on their top halves, but they also wear the brightest shorts or boxers they can find, Stewart said.
The BYUSA pre-Homecoming parade pancake breakfast on D.T. Field has been a Homecoming tradition for many years said Stephanie Ford, a BYUSA executive director. The pancake breakfast is free and all are invited. This year, it begins at 7:30 a.m. until the parade starts.
Lighting the Y is another Homecoming tradition with a long history, said Lynn Edward, faculty advisor of the Intercollegiate Knights.
Edward said the Knights have been lighting the Y ever since it has been lit. The Knights, previous to 1986, used “gook-balls” to light the Y. Now however, the Knights light the Y with 25 watt bulbs connected to generator. Note to the uninformed masses: gook-balls are shredded mattresses drenched in flammable liquid.
