Your Student Life: Homecoming 2024
October 15, 2024
Homecoming Week at Ohio State is October 20-26.
Every year students, faculty, staff and alumni unite in scarlet and gray to commemorate a university, a family and a home at The Ohio State University. Homecoming celebrates Buckeye spirit through a variety of events occurring the week leading up to the Homecoming football game.
You can learn more about Homecoming 2024, including a list of events, online.
The university has a rich tradition of Homecoming activities. Alumni Day began as early as the 1880s. Homecoming officially began as an idea of Ohio State professor and Alumni George Rightmire in 1912. The first Homecoming was called "Ohio State Day" as an event prior to a football game. At first, Homecoming unofficially began as commencement programs set aside for Alumni gatherings.
Students began the tradition of decorating houses and residence halls for the first Homecoming in 1912. The Homecoming Pep Rally tradition was added to Homecoming Week in 1918. In 1920, a Homecoming Dance was added to the celebration. Floats were organized for the Homecoming Parade on and off as early as 1920. The Homecoming Parade has been an annual tradition since 1965.
This year’s parade will begin with step off at the Ohio Stadium on Friday, October 25, 2024, at 6 p.m. in the West Stadium Parking lot and end at the Ohio Union.
The Grand Marshall for this year’s Homecoming Parade will be Archie Griffin.
The beloved Buckeye is celebrating the 50th anniversary of winning his first Heisman trophy as the best college football player in the nation in 1974.
In Student Life, we are grateful to have the Archie Griffin Grand Ballroom named after him in the Ohio Union. We also have on display many of his other trophies, including his unprecedented second Heisman trophy from 1975.
Also, Archie as a student ate his training meals in the old Ohio Union, so we were proud to fuel him during the era. Archie has spoken at many student events, including Commencement, and has inspired many student leaders over the years.
This year’s Homecoming Courts, both for the Columbus and regional campuses, will be coronated during the festivities.
Homecoming Court began with only women competing for queen. The first woman given the title of Homecoming Queen was Helen McDermott in 1923. The first Homecoming King was Alex Lambrinides in 1976. In 1960, Marlene Owens, the daughter of Olympic gold medalist and former Ohio State track star Jesse Owens, became Ohio State’s first African American Homecoming Queen.
In 1926, Maudine Ormsby was elected Homecoming Queen. Here is how Ohio State Archives tells the story:
“Nothing seems strange about Maudine Ormsby winning that year, until you learn that she was a cow. But to say she was just a cow would be unfair, Maudine was an award-winning Holstein. In her heyday, she was able to produce 743.5 pounds of milk and 28.7 pounds of butter fat during a 7-day test, which won her a world record.
Because of her unique capability, the agricultural school students were quite fond of her. They decided they should even nominate her for homecoming queen. To Maudine’s dismay she was officially disqualified because she was not in the student directory, but more likely because she was a cow. The Ag students then grudgingly nominated co-ed Margerey Rutledge.
Election Day came and with it a boatload of tampering and corruption. Officials printed 3,000 ballots, but when counting them they found over 12,000. Not only were people voting multiple times, but ballot boxes were stolen and some students were even voting for dead alumni. Because of the wide-spread voting corruption, the Election Committee was not able to count the ballots accurately.
Cue Maudine, who was busy winning her own awards. The Committee decided that since no human winner could be determined that Maudine would step in. Of course, Maudine did receive some valid votes, but not nearly enough to win.
Sadly, Maudine’s handlers did not allow her to attend any of the homecoming events for fear that the excitement would curdle her milk. She was a world record milk producer first and a queen second.”
Over the decades, Homecoming has been an important part of Ohio State tradition. We hope you join us for this year’s festivities.
Office of Student Life