Editor’s Note: For now over 75 years, The Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. This November-December 1962 Classic, shares the most memorable homecoming attended by thousands.
THE 1962 HOMECOMING will always be remembered by the thousands who attended as one of the greatest. For days ahead it was evident that more alumni were coming back than ever before. Hotels and motels were booked solid in a thirty-mile radius of Waco. The Pigskin Revue was sold out as were the two shows of the Midnight Cabaret.
Then came the Cuban Crisis, and Homecoming planners wondered if anyone would show up. They did by the thousands. If anyone cancelled his plans, it wasn’t noticeable. The entire Homecoming program had overflow crowds.
The parade featured thirty floats, thirteen bands, and lasted more than an hour. Taurus Club’s float, a spacecraft aimed toward orbit with smoke pouring from its tail, was too realistic. It didn’t orbit, but the smoke apparatus set the float afire, and it burned up early in the parade. Another hitch developed when a freight train interrupted the parade’s march down South Fifth Street to the campus. Here and on the following six pages are pictured a few Homecoming high spots.
Everything was ready for the exes' arrival
And here they came
Freshmen watched the Homecoming bonfire, which grew so hot that firemen had to spray nearby trees to prevent the heat from scorching them. They were scorched anyway.
