A Homecoming like never before: Recapping #BaylorHomecoming 2020

We knew going in that Homecoming 2020 was going to be different. Due to COVID-19, alumni were (sadly) encouraged not to return to campus this year, but to join in from wherever they may be as most events were moved online.

With Saturday’s football game postponed due to COVID-19, the weekend became less about a single game and more about celebrating the Baylor Spirit — that which unites Baylor alumni, even when we aren’t physically together. As Baylor Chamber alumnus Vince Clark noted during the Pep Rally, “We’re stronger than a Baylor nation, because we are the Baylor Family.”

For the first time, the entire Baylor Family was able to join our newest class of students for Mass Meeting, as Grant Teaff, Neal Knighton and others retold the story of the Immortal Ten and reminded us of our responsibility to care for one another. In another first, Bears all over the world were able to enjoy the best of this spring’s All University Sing acts as Pigskin Revue was streamed online.

Thankfully, students were still able to gather (following normal COVID-19 precautions) on Friday night at three locations in and around McLane Stadium for Dinner with the Livingstones (free food truck fare), to watch Pigskin on large outdoor screens, and to enjoy the Pep Rally and fireworks show. (The Pep Rally was also streamed live online, as thousands of Bears tuned in from all over the world.)

One bonus to this year’s format: If you missed Mass Meeting or the Pep Rally, you can still view those online. (Due to rights issues, Singspiration and Pigskin were livestream-only events.)

Many Downtown Waco businesses joined in the Homecoming celebration, too, dressing up their storefronts with murals painted by local artists.

Was it a perfect Homecoming? No. But it was a booster shot of Baylor spirit that many of us sorely needed in this particularly crazy year — and enough of a taste of Homecoming to excite us for next year!

Sic ’em, Bears!