Teachers Share Their Homecoming Stories from the Past

Gallery • 5 Photos

History Teacher Katie Brewer

History Teacher Gina Glass

“I always liked our homecoming parades and the pep rally. It was always the best pep rally of the year.”

“We always dressed for the theme. For example, if the theme was Hawaiian, then you would wear Hawaiian clothes to fit the theme.”

“We didn’t have Pinterest back then so you never had to one up anybody. Promposals and asking people to the dance did not happen. There was also more involvement in our time than now. The whole school would dress up during the week including teachers and staff.”

Psychology Teacher Jelena Pope

“I liked everything leading up to homecoming like the homecoming spirit week pep rally.”

“We wore Sunday church attire. We did not wear anything like what the kids wear now. What we wore was never fancy.”

“First off, there was not a big deal about asking girls to the dance. They might written a note asking but most of the time it was more like ‘Hey you wanna go?’”

Journalism Teacher Erin Coggins

This is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I am going to own up to it. I was up for homecoming queen. I just knew that I was going to win, but when my name was not announced, I beat my bouquet of roses against my leg in front of the entire crowd. My parents were humiliated beyond belief. I will never live that down. 

Those on the homecoming court wore fancy dresses like one would for the prom. And we wore huge corsages on our wrists to the dance. I was a cheerleader and we wore large carnation corsages on our uniforms at the game. The dance was held immediately after the game so everyone was dressed up for the game. 

My school had a lot of school spirit. Everyone dressed up! I mean everyone, including the faculty. No one in our school would have missed the dance or the game. No one campaigned for homecoming court. We always had a parade and a bonfire. Homecoming was a tradition that no one wanted to miss. 

History Teacher Katelyn Brewer

“We always had a field day on the Friday of the football game. I just remember being extremely excited because we would be playing our games and your class would be doing such a good job at winning the competitions. When I was in high school I was a cheerleader so it was always a lot of fun getting to cheer at the pep rally and then going out on the football field during halftime while the court was being presented.”

“When I was in high school, we never had homecoming dances. So I guess there never really was a theme or trend. I just remember us having dress up days and they were pretty much the same regardless of what year it was. There was always costume day, decade day, color day and spirit day.”

“I would say generally, and I don’t know if this is from personal experience or not, but it was all about the football game. We didn’t have the dance or anything and here today with these students, it is very much centered on the dance. So that would be a big difference not due to the change in time but the change in schools.”

Math Teacher Linzee Stevenson

“My school was a very small school and we had tons of school spirit because it was small town football- it was huge. If you weren’t at the football game, then you weren’t anywhere. The whole town was involved and it would basically shut down. All week we had dress up days and we had a homecoming parade. The teachers got involved and the students got involved and that is one of my favorite memories.”

“The style for the dance was not formal. It was always held right after the football game on Friday night. We just wore our spirit gear to the dance because it wasn’t super fancy. My school colors were black, orange and white so we were just decked out in whatever we wore to the game that day.”

“I don’t feel like we have as much school spirit. I feel like COVID had a lot to do with that and we need to bump it up. I think we will get there though. We still have dress up days and homecoming queen but COVID did a number on the school spirit.”

History Teacher Brett Larsen

“I remember the dress up days, specifically I remember superhero day was a really big day at my school. I also remember hanging out with my friends a lot during that week.”

“People had Nokias cell phones back then. There weren’t flip phones yet and texting was brand new when I was in high school. People also wore puka shell necklaces.”

“Students were more into it and there were parades, pep rallies and all kinds of cool events. I feel like now that COVID kinda killed the school spirit, it disconnected the students from their school identity. Hopefully it will improve now that everyone is back.”

P.E. Teacher John Turnbough

“Homecoming in our hometown meant football games, dances, and mums! Mums were something that was like a competition itself. The girls were given mums by their boyfriends to wear to school on homecoming Friday. The reason I cherish this memory is because it was always special to see my girlfriend smile when she saw her mum.”

“I went to high school in the early 80’s in a small town in Texas. Just the 80’s alone HAS a very different style and many trends that were typically 80’s. We didn’t have formal homecoming dances so the thing for everyone to do was to go to the football game and then off to an empty parking lot at Mr. Gatti’s Pizza. We just hung out and played music and talked with our friends.”

“Most of the homecoming traditions are similar today as they were back then. Football is always played against a team that is almost always a win! Dances are definitely more prominent now then they were then and are typically in formal attire. Alabama schools don’t do the mums so that is definitely different. But homecoming has also been a way to have mini reunions with classmates from previous graduating classes. Mostly, homecoming traditions are the ones designed and supported by individual schools or areas.”

Government Teacher Ben Stevenson

“We had a parade my senior year. We started in the parking lot at Sparkman and went all the way down Jeff Road to Monrovia Middle. The football team rode along firetrucks and we had candy we threw out to kids. We had our floats that went along the line.”

“There is a trend I remember guys doing that when we wore a Polo shirt we would match the color of the logo with the undershirt we wore.”

“The school spirit is lacking nowadays. There was a lot more community and school involvement such as parades where people from the community would line the road. The students were more excited about it and it was a whole lot less about the dance, in fact very few people went to the homecoming dance back then. It was more about the events around homecoming.”

Computer Science Teacher Kaitlyn Longino

“My school did a bond fire before homecoming week and it was a huge turnout. The whole community and school came together.”

“The trend back then we’re printed, short dresses but I never wore one, statement necklaces and massive side parts.”

“Compared to this year, the dance was at the end of homecoming week. There was more involvement and excitement. We wore nice clothes as if it was for church. We also had mums we wore to the game.”