From the archives: October 16, 1964
“Homecoming at the University is pretty sad,” Edwin L. Haislet, executive director of the Minnesota Alumni Assn., commented last week.
Homecoming no longer centers on the returning of graduates to their alma mater. It is a student activity, he added. Haislet suggested that Homecoming be replaced by something more modern, such as a Fall Football Festival.
HALFTIME AT the football games is not longer devoted to Homecoming. “Now we have a music appreciation course at halftime,” Haislet said.
He went on to say that from the beginning at the University, Homecoming has not been a success. The first Homecoming, against Wisconsin, was on Nov. 14, 1914.
It was hoped that Homecoming would prove to be as popular here as it was elswhere, but it was “not an unqualified success,” according to the Alumni Weekly following this Homecoming. The crowds were not larger than usual, and only one man was served at the banquet where 300 were expected.
“Alumni combined business with pleasure and didn’t care to have a program that interferes with their having a good time,” according to the Alumni Weekly of 1914. Haislet’s only comment was “Even then.”