MU’s annual Homecoming Parade returned after it was cancelled last year due to COVID-19. The parade took place on Oct. 9 at 9 a.m., starting at the Reynolds Alumni Center and ending at the corner of Cherry and Fifth streets.
This year’s parade featured 140 entries from local businesses and student organizations. The Mizzou Alumni Association sponsored the event, while three student directors from the Homecoming Steering Committee organized the parade.
Senior Jackson Ptasienski was one of this year’s directors, and he oversaw the Parade Committee.
Ptasienski said that the directors planned this year’s Homecoming parade as normal, but they were prepared to make changes if MU’s COVID-19 policies changed.
“If anything arose in the process regarding COVID-19 from the city or the university, we kept that in mind and made decisions thereafter,” Ptasienski said. “However, there wasn’t anything that came up from the city, so we planned it as if it was a normal one, like in 2019.”
Homecoming took on a new importance for the community after the parade’s hiatus. Ally Friend, who graduated last spring, said it was a chance for her to make up for lost time. Friend pilots an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, which was featured in the parade.
“People are usually so happy to see the Wienermobile, but I think being at Mizzou, it’s amplified times 10,” Friend said. “People are so ecstatic and I’m so happy to be back that it radiates from me.”
The excitement of this year’s parade was not only felt by alumni. Freshman Graham Ambrose attended the parade and said he finally felt like he earned his stripes.
“To me, it’s like a second welcoming because I don’t think I could really be a Mizzou student without attending at least one Homecoming and understanding what it means to the community,” Ambrose said.
In keeping with Homecoming tradition, the competition aspect of the parade returned this year. Floats were required to incorporate Truman the Tiger to fit the overall Homecoming theme of “A Reason to Roar,” they were also required to incorporate the float theme video games. Entries were judged on their creativity, general appearance, incorporation of themes, timeliness and spirit.
The theme for the parade floats was video games, and it featured games such as Pokémon, Club Penguin, Webkinz and Pac-Man.
Anna Sago, freshman and Phi Mu member said she was required to spend 48 hours on the chapter’s house decoration and float. The steering committee assigned Sago’s chapter and fraternities Phi Kappa Theta, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Alpha Kappa Lambda the theme of Pac-Man. Sago said pomping, where small pieces of tissue paper are cut to decorate floats, and preparing for the parade brought her closer to her sisters.
“Going into Phi Mu, I really didn’t know a lot of people, and so when I would pomp, I made it a habit to ask everyone around me their name and major and where they are from, and what that did for me is that it made a web of connections,” Sago said. “I feel like I know somebody everywhere. It definitely helped me get closer to a lot of people that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.”
Homecoming is a major MU tradition because it originated here. It was Ambrose’s first Homecoming, and he said the festivities left a good first impression.
“I suppose the [parade] invokes a sense of nostalgia,” Ambrose said. “[Alumni] feel like their younger, past selves, perhaps when they were in college, and it invokes a sense of pride too, I imagine, because Mizzou is a very pride-heavy school. You can tell that Homecoming attracts people from the entire state of Missouri … that probably only amplifies that sense of pride.”
Edited by Emmet Jamieson | ejamieson@themaneater.com
