Scenes from a Homecoming

Emory's cheerleaders parading down Asbury Circle was just one scene from Emory Homecoming Weekend 2009. For more, visit the slideshows on the EAA's Facebook page or EAAvesdropping, the EAA's blog.

Emory Homecoming Weekend, September 24–26, required a special kind of vision. With one eye on the sky, which threatened to open up (and occasionally did) throughout the celebration, and the other on the dozens of events stretching from Oxford to Atlanta, a delicate balancing act was necessary to pull off the whole operation. Judging from the positive feedback, though, and the smiles all around, the mission was accomplished.
           
While most of the weekend’s events were outdoors, the rain held off for Thursday’s comedian Aziz Ansari from NBC’s Parks & Recreation, and the Homecoming concert later that night featuring Sean Kingston.
           
Friday featured the Sustainability Food Fair, the arts & sciences awards dinner, class reunion pre-mixers, and the Homecoming Ball for students.
           
Saturday was Emory’s inaugural Spirit Day, when alumni, students and faculty blanketed the campus in Emory gear. Despite morning threats of rain, the laughter from Volunteer Emory’s Kids Sports Camp echoed across McDonough Field, and alumni taking campus walking tours received a special sneak preview of Homecoming parade floats being built across campus.
           
Before the super-spirited festivities began that afternoon, alumni attended the 50-Years of Sorority Life Celebration and panel discussion and the Oxford “Old Timer’s Lunch,” as well as the EAA’s signature “Classes without Quizzes” featuring Arthur Kellermann 80M, associate dean for health policy and professor of emergency medicine, and Reshma Shah, assistant professor of marketing in Goizueta Business School.
           
And nothing, not even the weather, got in the way of the big, bold, blue & gold Homecoming Parade. The EAA’s float joined fraternities and sororities, student organizations, Emory sports teams, and residence halls. A whopping 52-float punch wound around campus from Glenn Auditorium to Asbury Circle, which was a short jump to the Homecoming Tailgate Party adjacent to the soccer field.
           
Just as the parade wrapped up, the skies finally opened, which drove the tailgate party into the Woodruff P.E. Center to avoid the downpour, where students, alumni, and friends mingled and dined on wings, sodas, and beer. Kids (ages 2 through 52) had their faces painted, picked up free Homecoming cups and t-shirts for Spirit Day, and had their photos taken in front of special Emory backdrops in the Homecoming photo booth.
           
After several hours and several inches of rain, the night wrapped up (or started, depending on how you look at it), with reunions for the schools of medicine, law, nursing, and business, as well as the undergraduate reunions in five-year intervals, from 1964 to 2004. More than 1,000 reunion guests were spread across Atlanta from the Miller-Ward Alumni House to SHOUT! restaurant in Midtown, and whispers among guests recalled old Emory haunts—from Maggie’s and Famous to Manuel’s Tavern and Moe’s & Joe’s. Emory took over Atlanta for a night.
           
The weekend wrapped early Sunday with the Class of 1969’s Memorial Service at Emory’s Main Campus and the Oxford Memorial Service at Oxford’s campus.—Cassie Young 07C