Homecoming

Homecoming is a Longstanding Saint John’s Tradition

A vintage red and white button reads "Homecoming 1929" and is attached to a red ribbon, which holds a gold medal featuring a football player running with the ball.
Round pin with illustration of a cartoon Johnnie mascot holding a shovel next to a grave marked “RIP Auggies,” with text: “ST. JOHN’S vs. AUGSBURG, BURY the Auggies! HOMECOMING 1983.”.
Round button with a cartoon football player in red and white uniform holding a horn. Text reads: "Homecoming St. John's vs Hamline Oct. 10, 1959" with the word "Pipers" on the horn.

Written by Br. Eric Pohlman, Archivist & Distinctive Collections Librarian

Though the word was not used, the first Saint John’s “homecoming,” in the sense of a campus event to which alumni were explicitly invited, may have been in October 1882. Since “the private address of each not being at hand,” the monks operating the school placed notices in various Minnesota newspapers inviting “the former pupils of St. John’s College” (the upgrade to “university” came a year later) to “be present on Tuesday the 24th inst., at the consecration of the church lately built at the college [The Great Hall], and to partake in the silver jubilee of the advent of the Benedictine order into Minnesota, during which festivities an Alumni association to re-establish old friendships and draw more closely the bonds of fraternity, will be organized” (St. Paul Daily Globe, October 1882). Starting the following year, 1883, an alumni gathering was an annual summer affair. This pattern continued for over four decades, through 1924.

The first Saint John’s homecoming connected to an autumn football game was a century ago: October 17, 1925. Alas, the Johnnies lost to Hamline, 7-14. A Record opinion piece entitled “Fulfillment of a Desire” lauded the seasonal shift, which allowed current and former students to connect: “the students feel that a commingling of the old grads, who are upholding the glories of the past, with students who are taking pride in the present-day achievements, cannot but have far-reaching results.”

For a time, the homecoming designation of a football game was only on alternate years (1927, 1929, 1931). In 1932, rummers of a homecoming game seem never to have advanced to reality. But from 1933-1941, homecoming was an annual event. The Second World War brought change and an October 1, 1942, Record predicted, “Though attendance will be curtailed by the tire shortage, the festive spirit of Homecoming Day will be the same as always.” Wartime conditions limited athletic competitions and there were no homecomings in 1943 and 1944. Perhaps the tire shortage did indeed curtail attendance such that a 1942 homecoming did not come to mind in 1945, when the Record announced, “our first homecoming in four years.” Homecomings have since been held annually to the present.

During the War, the Saint John’s campus hosted Army Air Corps college training. While a cadet here, Jack Webb directed the first variety show, which would grow into a student homecoming tradition. Webb himself would go on to be an actor and star as “Joe Friday” in the long-running radio and TV police detective drama Dragnet. (You may have to ask your grandparents. Or, if your parents were raised on PBS like Brother Eric, they might remember the “Mathnet” parody on Square One TV.)

The twin towers of that first abbey church consecrated in 1882 feature on several homecoming buttons (1947, 1951, and 1957), but these give way to designs taunting opponents. For 1960: “Flog the Dogs,” as in the Bulldogs of the University of Minnesota Duluth. 1961: “Clobber the Cobbers” of Concordia, Moorhead. 1963: a rather polite “Dust Off Adolphus” for Gustavus. 1965: “Wrench the Pipers” of Hamline. 1968: “Flip the Burgs,” referencing Augsburg, Minneapolis. Our beloved Johnnie Rat often appeared on homecoming buttons from the late 1970s on. The 1981 button instructed, “RAT-tle the Gusties!!” For St. Olaf, the 1985 button threatened violence: “Make ‘em eat lutefisk.” To browse the collection online, search “Homecoming Button” at https://www.csbsju.edu/sju-archives/sju-archives-on-vivarium/.

The College of Saint Benedict has its own tradition of alumnae engagement, with the “homecoming” label applied to various events, and this topic warrants its own future column.

I take this opportunity to thank longtime CSB+SJU archives associate Liz Knuth for her assistance with this topic and many others. I also give thanks for my predecessor, Peggy Landwehr Roske, for her dedicated development of our archival collections and programs. Truly, I “stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Have a question about CSB+SJU history? Ask the Archivist! Br. Eric’s email is [email protected].