Homecoming is the perfect time to ponder WSU traditions. After all, it is the first thing most people land on when they think about college tradition. But homecoming traditions at Weber State are far more than a dance and a game.
Throughout the week Wildcats will attend events including the Mount Ogden Hike, the downtown pep rally and, of course, the dance and the football game.
My freshman year, my favorite memories and my first friends were made during homecoming week. I bonded over activities both on and off of campus. The involvement really threw me into being a Wildcat.
I surfed the FlowRider with new friends and laughed as I fell off the board. I challenged them to rock climbing competitions and flew with them in the iFly.
Like other students on campus, I have participated in one of my favorite traditions Weber has to offer: kissing under the clock tower at midnight the night of the homecoming dance. When the crowd from the dance inside the Shepherd Union moved outside to the clock tower plaza, I truly became a Wildcat.
Even the idea of being a Wildcat is submerged in tradition.
According to the university’s website, in a tough football practice in 1928, a player said that Wallace Morris was playing like a pussy-cat. Hearing the remark, Stewart “Monk” Holliday, the team captain, looked up and yelled back, “He’s no pussy-cat. He’s a wildcat!’” After this, the team began to refer itself as the Wildcats, and the name stuck.
Being a Wildcat on campus means taking in the full experience Weber State has to offer. There were semesters I would simply go to school to go to classes, and I did not find myself enjoying WSU as much as I could have. The years I have participated in events are the years that I have made memories here.
As a senior I am more involved on campus than ever. It is these moments at homecoming events that I will look back on as the memories of what made my time at Weber so great.
The traditions on campus are more than just opportunities for students to bond with one another. We are participating in activities that will make our college experience memorable. I know that because I have been going to these events, and contributing to preserving these traditions.
To any students on campus who do not feel like they belong, it is simply a matter of taking the first steps to be more involved. I am excited to be graduating in the spring with friends who I’ve met on campus. Graduation is just one more tradition I get to a part of at WSU.
