N.C. A&T Alumni Times

The Greatest Homecoming on Earth would seem incomplete without just one of its essential ingredients: the big game, concerts, reunions, vendors, a lot of Aggie Pride, and the big parade. A long time ago, homecoming was much smaller and there wasn’t a parade.

This is the story of how the most colorful celebration of Aggie Pride began.

“Home-coming” as it was once spelled, is said to have begun in 1926. By 1929 three big traditions had emerged. First, there were the big football games led by Lonnie P. Byarm ‘1911, our first CIAA championship coach. There was also a meeting of the Alumni Association that included addresses from President F. D. Bluford and a luncheon. Also, reflecting on our land-grant heritage, an annual agricultural fair was usually held on the same day. Entertainment was introduced soon after and the earliest known homecoming concert attraction was “Smiling Billy Stewart and His Celery City Serenaders,” a “chitlin circuit” band from Florida in 1929.

There was no mention of a parade found for a few years. Finally, in 1934 it was announced in the A&T Register that there would be an “Alumni Parade,” the “first to be sponsored by the college for homecoming,” and it would be a “special attraction of the game””. This game day parade formed in front of the Dudley Memorial Building and marched to the WWI Stadium. During the parade, the band played and sung “Dear A&T.” A special theme of this first parade was that it was formed by alumni from 1899 to 1934. Each class had a banner with its colors and motto, and were followed by undergrads.

It is not clear if this parade was before or during the game, but it seems to have been very motivating. The Aggies football team “satisfied a blood-thirsty alumni” by beating the Lincoln University Lions, 13 to 0. Ever since, there has been a parade each year before the game as part of an ever-growing “gala” homecoming celebration. A line up of alumni was a major factor of the parade for decades.

The year 1936 set the standard for what we call the Greatest Homecoming on Earth. A photo of the 1936 homecoming parade was published in the Chicago Defender newspaper. It is still one of the oldest images of our Homecomings. Its caption claimed that with the cars, the floats, the Marching Band, and a crowd of over 5,000 people, A&T had put on one of the “most elaborate homecoming celebrations ever witnessed” at any HBCU.

By 1949 the parade included at least 40 floats with the college band and was viewed as the most colorful occasion of homecoming. The parade floats were, and still are, lavishly decorated by all the different types of student organizations. Rain or shine, the parade was not to be missed. A famous example of this was the 1946 Homecoming parade, when all the floats carried on in drenching weather. By 1960 our “Titantic Parade” also included seven high school bands, and 1,000 ROTC cadets. The archives is not sure when float decorations awards were first given, like the Chancellor’s Award, but they do go back more than half a century.

The queen of the parades was then and now Miss A&T, usually riding in the first car. A tradition began that she would ride in the parade with President F. D. Bluford. Parade themes over the last few decades started in the 1970s include “Personalities of Blackness” (1972), to 1989’s “Stepping Out With a Purpose In Mind” to “News Quests” in 2000. As the reputation of A&T, its Blue and Gold Marching Machine, lavish floats and the spirit of Aggie Pride grew, so did the participation and spectatorship of the parade. In reviewing quotes from faculty, students and alumni in the A&T Register each parade seemed to be better than the one the year before.

The F. D. Bluford Library Archives and Special Collections has a growing “Homecoming History” Collection. To view these items, or if you want to know more about A&T history please visit us at the Bluford Library, or contact us at libraryarchives@ncat.edu.