By Emilia Mercado

Homecoming at TWU has been a long-honored tradition, and this year’s homecoming shined a light on the talents of our school’s staff, faculty, and student organizations.

Banner Competition

This year’s homecoming festivities started off with the Banner Competition, where different student-led clubs and organizations created their own banner that followed the theme “Fall-ow Me to Homecoming.” The winner of this event was the Criminal Justice Club.

HoCo Gameshow

The HoCo Gameshow is TWU’s version of Jeopardy. The organizations who signed up competed for points and this year’s winner was Black Student Union.

TWU Spirit Instagram Challenge

Continuing with this year’s Homecoming theme, Fall-ow Me to Homecoming, organizations this year were challenged to make an Instagram post with that theme, and the posts are judged on creativity. This year’s winner was Sigma Kappa.

SINGO Night

On 10/4, the night was ended with SINGO, which is basically BINGO but with a musical twist. The winner received a $100 gift card. Organizations received participation points for attending this event.

Penny Wars

This year’s penny wars were just as cut-throat as years prior. Penny wars is where students can give money to their favorite organization for them to donate to their chosen philanthropy at the end of the contest. One penny is equal to one point, but any other coin equals negative points. For example, a nickel equates negative five points. This year’s winner was the Criminal Justice Club with 436 points, who donated all the money raised to the H.O.P.E center of Athens. For reference, Sigma Kappa had negative 11,883 points.

Bulldog Olympics

The Bulldog Olympics are where the organizations competing in Homecoming can battle it out for points in the Colloms Lawn. Balloon Toss, Egg Toss, Tug-o-War, Relay Races, and Ships and Sailors were played, and in the end, Black Student Union won the night.

Choose Blue: Student Organization Fair

This Student Organization Fair was for any school club or organization that wanted to be represented for the prospective students touring the TWU campus on 10/6. Many booths were set up and there was a lively turnout and music to dance to as well.

Campus Lamp Post Decorating Contest

To add to the festivities of fall, the Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs held a separate contest for decorating the lamp posts around campus. Organizations were given “a corn stalk, a pumpkin, a square hay bale, and a scarecrow for starting materials.” The students through the week and guests that came for Homecoming on Saturday were able to vote for the winner. All the organizations came up with extremely creative lamp posts, but the student organization who won the $200 cash prize was Sigma Kappa and the faculty/staff winner was Student Life.

Bonfire Night with Dr. Bocco

This is a long tradition at TWU where students can lounge around the Nocatula Gardens and listen to the history of TWU while eating smores and snacks. This year Dr. Bocco talked about the legend of Nocatula, a Native American story where two young lovers died, but the seeds their family plant became the two trees intertwined in the Nocatula Gardens.

Wear TWU Blue

Friday, 10/7, started off with wear TWU blue, a campus-wide request from Student Activities Board. They wanted everyone on campus, not just the organizations participating in the homecoming events, to show their pride and join the fun at TWU.

Lip Sync

Coming back from a two-year break due to COVID-19, Lip Sync was the most highly anticipated event of Homecoming. The organizations that performed were Black Student Union, Kappa Beta Gamma, and Sigma Kappa. Black Student Union did a mash-up of Halloween songs, Kappa Beta Gamma had a rock-and-roll theme, and Sigma Kappa did a variation of Charlie’s angels. Lip Sync was also where the Homecoming King and Queen were crowned, Jeremiah Sullivan and Emma Blanchard.

The following Monday, the winners of Homecoming were announced. In first place with a $350 prize was the Black Student Union. In second place with a $300 prize was Kappa Beta Gamma, and in third place with a $250 prize was Sigma Kappa.

Photos by Emilia Mercado, Tommy Botello, Cameron Williams
Video by Emilia Mercado and Cameron Williams
Video Editing by Emilia Mercado
Editorial Assistance by Bella Fricks