Across the country, high school soccer stadiums are back in action, with parents, students and fans coming together to support the home team. Whether covered in stadium blankets and drinking hot chocolate from thermos bottles or in shorts and T-shirts and drinking bottled water and Coca-Cola products, there’s no question that high school football is an incredibly popular national pastime.
It doesn’t matter if your team is on its way to the state championship or has a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory: there is, for any high school team, One Big Game every season. Homecoming events actually began on college campuses, with the University of Missouri hosting the first such event in 1891, followed by Baylor University in Waco, Texas in 1909. While Mizzou’s event was geared toward Primarily to welcome graduates for a series of enjoyable parties, Baylor was the first school in the country to center its homecoming weekend around a sporting event. Since Baylor is located in Texas, where football is the undisputed king of sports, the idea caught on with other Texas schools. Just as the United States embraced the legend of the Lone Star State cowboy, it also embraced the idea of homecoming festivities, and by the mid-1920s, universities across the United States began offering homecoming opportunities to their own graduates.
Now America in the early 20th century was primarily an agrarian community, with most non-farmers working in some type of industrial or service capacity. In other words, not all young Americans went to college, and when they did, they dressed up, though I’ll leave that for another story. In fact, most Americans did not finish high school. They went to work. Those who had the luxury of earning their high school diploma were viewed in many communities with the same kind of awe reserved in the mid-20th century for those who earned their bachelor’s degrees.
It only makes sense that high schools would model themselves after their more educated older siblings. Sororities and fraternities sprang up in high schools, and homecoming weekends became as revered as Reunions for some Ivy Leaguers.
Homecoming allowed graduates and students to rub shoulders. A hundred years ago, this might have resulted in the opportunity for a student to meet a future employer. While I guess that opportunity is a possibility nowadays, homecomings really do present graduates with an occasion to reminisce about the good old days, days of youth and indestructibility, without all the pressure of a class reunion. After all, at a homecoming football game, no brochure is published that contains all the achievements of the rest of the class.
For students, homecoming typically includes spirit week, which is made up of competitions between the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes and between various organizations on campus. There’s also the annual football game, distinguished from the regular season ones by extra sign-painting efforts by the cheerleaders, a particularly well-rehearsed halftime show by the band drill team, spinners, drummers and horns, etc. . and, especially in the South, the ubiquitous mom from Homecoming. The girls compare the value of their boyfriends to each other by the size and cost of their mother’s corsage, in the same way they will later with engagement rings, houses, cars, and “investment jewelry.”
Speaking of investment jewelry: Homecoming is the perfect time for the mothers and fathers of their children, or the children themselves, to invest in jewelry. This is the perfect opportunity to purchase your first set of cufflinks, sure to be treasured throughout your high school, college, career, and parenting years.
The culmination of the week is usually the homecoming dance. The advantages of such a dance are the opportunity to see the students in costume, to enjoy their excitement at the thought of their Grand Soiree, and that such an event can be enjoyed by all, whether the football team wins or loses.
Although some schools allow children to dress casually for their Homecoming events, most events include girls in cocktail dresses and boys in at least a jacket and tie. I have heard parents say that they would rather buy jackets for their children at this stage than suits; children are growing at such an alarming rate that it is often more profitable to do so. However, while you can save money with a blazer or jacket that fits and looks good, but isn’t personally tailored for him, you can make it look expensive with the right accessories.
Your son may outgrow certain pieces of clothing, but he won’t outgrow a classic tie and a pair of cufflinks. Be sure to pick a classic tie, maybe a striped one, which will allow you to look both traditional and edgy in the ironic preppy style that’s so popular these days.
Make this event special by investing in a pair of classic cufflinks. These will take you through many years of special events and get you started as a youngster who thinks through the details. Engraved with his initial and presented in a special box that includes the date, this will be a gift that will keep him coming home long after football season is over.