Things have changed.

Though homecoming might be looked at with indifference by students, the institution and traditions about that one weekend a year have survived war, fatalities and the struggle for equal rights. As homecoming surpasses its 101st year since it began at MSU, the traditions and events attached to it have evolved with the changing sensibilities of campus and the nation as a whole.

Homecoming football

The football game versus Northwestern on Oct. 15 will mark the 101st year since MSU’s first homecoming game, according to the MSU University Archives and Historical Collections.

The first homecoming game on Oct. 30, 1915, was played on Old College Field and pitted Michigan Agricultural College against Oregon State. M.A.C. lost 0-20, according to the MSU Archives.

Attending the 1919 homecoming game cost $1, according to the M.A.C. Record, the predecessor of the MSU Alumni Magazine that operated until 1955. By 1950, prices were up to $2.50 per ticket, or $24.98 in today’s monetary value.

While many traditions remain the same, MSU homecoming court has changed dramatically since its start in 1947. In early years, homecoming court was reserved only for women. In 1974, the title “homecoming queen” was changed to “homecoming representative,” which opened the court up to men.

The title of “homecoming representative” wasn’t around for long, though. By 1976, MSU decided to switch back to having a homecoming queen — with the addition of a homecoming king.

“Times change but traditions live on,” according to a 1976 edition of The State News. “In these days as women gain equal rights, a group of students has decided it is appropriate for MSU to reverse the situation and elect a homecoming king in addition to a queen.”

Homecoming events haven’t always gone according to plan. The 1920 game versus Toledo University had to be postponed because one of Toledo’s players suffered a fatal injury in a scrimmage the week before the game was scheduled. Homecoming was canceled entirely in 1943 because of World War II. The last time homecoming activities were canceled was in 1975, because the 1974 homecoming celebrations went $2,500 over the budget.

The 1918 homecoming game featured military exhibitions by “student soldiers,” including “bloody bayonet drills which are meant for the extermination of the Hun,” a derogatory term for the Germans in World War I, according to the Nov. 6, 1918 M.A.C. Record, only five days before the ceasefire on Nov. 11.

The 1919 homecoming game featured the first official halftime performance, advertised in the M.A.C. Record as “student stunts between halves.”

By the early 1950s, halftime featured a prominent performance by the MSU marching band. In 1952, former MSU marching band director Leonard Falcone told the M.A.C. Record he required seven hours of practice per week from the marching band for each 15-minute halftime show.

Other traditions

The parade has been a big part of homecoming festivities, even before it was a school-sanctioned event. In 1949, hundreds of students broke away from the homecoming pep rally and marched down Grand River Avenue, “halting traffic and rocking vehicles.” They eventually made their way to the East Lansing High School homecoming football game, which they halted for 10 minutes, according to the November 1949 edition of The M.A.C. Record.

MSU has been selecting a grand marshal to represent the MSU community each year for homecoming for approximately 35 years, according to the MSU Archives.

This year, basketball coach Tom Izzo and his wife, Lupe Izzo, will serve as the grand marshals as they did in 2000. Other notable grand marshals include former NFL and MSU football player Bubba Smith, women’s head basketball coach Suzy Merchant, “Silence of the Lambs” actor Anthony Heald, who graduated MSU in 1971, and chief creative officer of DC Entertainment Geoff Johns.

Kermit the Frog served as an especially memorable grand marshal in 2006. Since its inception, MSU homecoming has featured an array of events for students and alumni. This year, MSU a capella groups will perform at Sounds of Homecoming on Oct. 12, not unlike the 1937 homecoming festivities, which also included performances by an a capella choir.

A newer tradition, Hayrides and History, is celebrating its 10th year this homecoming, University Activities Board spirit and traditions director Maggie Ribick said. Hayrides and History is a partnership between UAB and MSU Farms to provide hayrides for students, while also teaching participants a little about MSU’s past.

“It is a great way for the MSU community to learn the history of the university all while having a fun time and sharing Spartan spirit with each other,” Ribick said. “It is the perfect way to kick off homecoming week.”

Some homecoming traditions have fallen out of practice through the last 100 years. For many years, MSU held a homecoming dance.

At early homecomings, students attended post-game celebrations called “nightshirt parades,” in their pajamas. In 1919, “the old and new fellows and girls skinney-wow-wowed and locomotived enthusiastically,” according to the M.A.C. Record.

In 1976, the homecoming dance was held “on the first block of M.A.C. Avenue,” according to a 1976 edition of The State News.

Homecoming traditions, such as a bonfire, have fallen out of practice, too — the last homecoming bonfire was held in 2005.

Some activities have been revived from the past, though. In the early 1960s, students painted murals on the windows of campus buildings. Ten years later, the event was brought back “to try to turn the trend back to the spirit of the early ‘60s,” according to a 1974 edition of The State News.

Today, students still participate in a window-painting contest. The event has been revived for a second time as “Paint the Aves,” now in its second year.

Still important?

Despite the revival of older traditions, today’s students aren’t entirely sure of the relevance of homecoming festivities.

“I actually haven’t heard much about Michigan State’s homecoming,” anthropology senior Cathryn Cooke said. “I’ve never really participated.”

Students might feel disconnected from homecoming because activities aren’t promoted enough, premedical freshman Irene Shao said.

“Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what homecoming is,” Shao said.

Fans of homecoming shouldn’t be too worried about the state of the event — these doubts are almost as old as homecoming itself.

“Lovers of tradition encourage and promote it. Members of a younger, more skeptical generation question its ‘relevance,’” according to a 1976 edition of The State News.

Forty years later, MSU’s homecoming is still going strong, despite perennial concerns about homecoming’s future, and its importance.