Homecoming All About Tradition, Togetherness

If you love being a UC alum, you’re probably feeling the tug of Homecoming this week. The big day is this Saturday, October 6 — but Homecoming is more than just one day. In fact, it’s a lot of events over several days that encourage all Bearcats to return to campus.

The students are celebrating Homecoming all week, and the theme they created — “We Love Lucy: A Flashback to Yesteryear” — honors the generations-old Homecoming tradition as well as today’s real-life binturong school mascot. UC Blue Ash starts its festivities on Wednesday and will bring a float to the parade for the first time. The UC Alumni Association’s African American Alumni Affiliate (known as 4A) begins three days of fun on Thursday. And the inaugural Homecoming Kickoff Party will take place Friday evening at the Myers Alumni Center … Coach Butch Jones, an array of “Cincinnati Favorites” to eat, beer-tasting from local brewery Christian Moerlein, a steel drum band, campus tours — and it’s all FREE!

Then comes Saturday, and it will be worth waiting for:

• College-based and other organizations will have events throughout the day.
• The annual Homecoming Parade will start down Clifton Avenue at 3 p.m. This year's Homecoming Parade Grand Marshals are Ernie and Cindy (Chiang) Halvorsen, champions of The Amazing Race in 2011!  Cindy, CEAS ’04, was a UC Honors student, creator of Camp Bearcat, recipient of the 2004 Presidential Leadership Medal of Excellence, and Homecoming Queen in 2002.
• The UC Alumni Association’s Bearcats Blitz starts at 2 p.m., part of the vibrant UC Gameday environment.
• Starting at the Blitz and then winding through The Grid tailgate area, the football team’s traditional CATWALK begins at about 4:30 p.m.
• UC meets its longest football rival, Miami, at 7 p.m. in Nippert Stadium, which means the Bearcats should be ringing the Victory Bell shortly after 10 p.m.

“This weekend, UC is the place to be,” said UC Alumni Association executive director Myron Hughes, ’86. “Old and new friends all over the place, great food, winning football, family fun, our old stomping grounds … There’s a reason they call it Homecoming. We hope Bearcats everywhere make plans to come back.”

Check out all the events and activities on the UC Homecoming website.