By Daniel Scullard
From bonfires to royalty Concordia has had a dynamic past with homecoming traditions. Concordia has had homecomings for 104 years and with that come a lot of events.
Homecoming Fire
The homecoming fires was one of the original events of homecoming, back then freshmen would clean the entirety of campus in preparation for the returning alumni, during the burning the Upperclassmen would guard the fire and protect it from rival school raids from Minnesota State University Moorhead and North Dakota State University. In 1937 the Homecoming fire was banned by the Moorhead Fire Department due to safety concerns, and In 1946 it was brought back but now with the help of the Moorhead Fire Department. Even today the homecoming fire is a staple to Homecoming, today the fire is joined with a show of fireworks, the cheer squad and the pep band.
Homecoming Royalty
The Concordia homecoming royalty was first crowned in 1926 with Queen Valborg Bjornson taking the crown. Homecoming royalty did stop however in 1974 when students had concerns about sexism the halt lasted until 1976 which in that time the Don Awards would be used instead of royalty crowns where 6 students (3 male 3 female) would be given awards based on their leadership and service in the community when Homecoming royalty resumed in the mid-1970s Royalty would have a king to join the queens side. Homecoming royalty has since died out and no longer relevant in recent homecomings.
Homecoming Parade
The Concordia Homecoming parade started in 1923 and continued until the great depression when in 1936 the parade got cancelled due to budgeting costs. After the great depression the floats were then continued to be decorated ornately, and huge decorations were put on over the top floats with the homecoming queen taking up the rear cart and would award the cart that she found to be the best one. Because of the fire ban in 1943 they did a torchlight parade to replace the fire until the fires return. In 1960 WDAY-TV (the television station run by the Fargo-Moorhead magazine InForum) televised the parade for the first time.
Homecoming Coverage
Homecoming has been covered in a multitude of ways, but the longest running has been the Concordian which started covering Homecoming in 1921, the year after the Concordian started. There was no homecoming edition of the Concordian until 1927 when the name of homecoming was flipped between home-coming and homecoming. In 1954 the Concordian portrayed the homecoming queen on the entire front page until 1970 when they returned to having news portrayed on the front page, but still having homecoming edition even to this day.
Homecoming Events
More events started to become traditional for Concordia’s College with the edition of Cobber’s Got Talent, a 5k run and more getting added every year with Trivia Night being a new addition. With every year more alumni returning each year, this year alumni recognition was added to the schedule, the alumni recognition award is given to alumni whose achievements and accomplishments made an impact on the world.
