The week of October 11-16th, Missouri State University celebrated its 100th Homecoming. Students, staff, faculty, and alumni all came together to celebrate this very special Homecoming. This year’s theme was “Celebrating 100 Years” and each of the teams and pairings were able to individually express what 100 Years of Homecoming was to them in the events.
“We thought hitting the milestone of 100 years of Homecoming was an important mark to celebrate, especially this year,” homecoming advisor, Addy Emmons said. “As we social distanced the last year and half to protect our fellow Bears and greater community, the student body sacrificed a lot. When social distancing restrictions lifted, we wanted a homecoming theme to celebrate past, present, and future bears.”
Each day of Homecoming week has a specific event tied to it. The events are scored by judges who base their score off of creativity, originality, and how well the team tied the theme into what they did. At the end of the week, all of the scores are added up and the overall Homecoming winners are decided. This year, Alpha Chi Omega placed first, Delta Chi placed second, and Pi Kappa Phi took third place for Fraternity and Sorority Life.
“A weight was definitely lifted off my chest,” Delta Chi Homecoming chair Garrett Vernon said. “I felt great knowing that the work I put in paid off and I could contribute in my own way to Delta Chi’s success.”
Because Homecoming week is filled with many activities every day, there is a lot of hard work that goes into the planning of it. Advisors Addy Emmons and Debbie Letterman were responsible for leading the Homecoming Committee throughout the week. The Committee consisted of a group of students who coordinated the events and made sure the overall week ran smooth from all Bears participating past, present, and future.
“My favorite part was working with Committee,” Emmons said. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes for months in advance to make each event successful. It was fun to watch their months of hard work come together.”
Homecoming Court was crowned during half time ceremony of the Homecoming football game. The student nominees on Homecoming Court worked hard the weeks prior to the week of Homecoming, to campaign and showcase themselves and their involvement on campus throughout their time as a Bear. This year, Homecoming King and Queen were a part of our very own FSL community! Colin Weber from Theta Chi and Katie Sulzner from Alpha Chi Omega.
“As soon as my name was called, a huge wave of relief came over me,” Weber said. “I knew that all the time and work I put into Homecoming had finally paid off. I truly was in awe. It’s a weird thing to say, I was crowned as the 100th Missouri State Homecoming King and I personally can’t describe how it makes me feel other than I couldn’t be more excited to represent Missouri State and my fraternity with that title.”
During the week of Homecoming, Fraternity and Sorority Life was able to showcase University spirit in unique and creative ways. Chapters already cannot wait for next year to continue to showcase the community, personality, and members.
Check out the recap of FSL winners below:
Decorate Downtown:
- Alpha Omicron Pi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Kappa Sigma
- Sigma Sigma Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Chi, Tau Kappa Epsilon
- Sigma Kappa, Sigma Pi, Phi Gamma Delta
- Delta Sigma Phi, Delta Zeta, Xi Omicron Iota, Kappa Alpha Order
Chalk-n-Rock:
- Delta Chi, Alpha Chi Omega, Pi Kappa Phi
- Gamma Phi Beta
- Delta Sigma Phi, Delta Zeta, Xi Omicron Iota, Kappa Alpha Order
PSU Window Painting:
- Delta Chi, Alpha Chi Omega, Pi Kappa Phi
- Alpha Sigma Alpha, Sigma Nu, Pi Kappa Alpha
- Alpha Omicron Pi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Kappa Sigma
Can We Build It:
- Alpha Chi Omega, Delta Chi, Pi Kappa Phi
Rockstar:
- Alpha Omicron Pi
- Theta Chi
- Alpha Chi Omega
Maroon and White Night:
- Alpha Omicron Pi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Kappa Sigma
MO State Live:
- Delta Chi, Alpha Chi Omega, Pi Kappa Phi
- Alpha Delta Pi, Theta Chi
- Alpha Sigma Alpha, Sigma Nu, Pi Kappa Alpha
Field Day:
- Alpha Chi Omega, Delta Chi, Pi Kappa Phi
- Alpha Sigma Alpha, Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Nu
- Theta Chi, Alpha Delta Pi
Parade Walking:
- Alpha Omicron Pi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Kappa Sigma
- Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Nu, Alpha Sigma Alpha
- Sigma Sigma Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Chi, Tau Kappa Epsilon
Parade Car:
- Alpha Delta Pi, Theta Chi
- Delta Chi, Alpha Chi Omega, Pi Kappa Phi
- Sigma Kappa, Sig
Homecoming is an honored tradition for alumni and students alike at Missouri State University. Each year the community comes together to participate and show their school pride in a series of fun events. This year, our fraternity and sorority life community creatively worked to represent our Bears Through the Ages themed Homecoming! Judges from Missouri State University and the Springfield community determined the winner of each event, and gave appropriate points to teams who best applied originality, creativity, correlation to the overall theme, and amount of pride for MSU!
