EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) – From 1925 to 2025 thousands of people from the UW-Eau Claire football team, marching band and student body have had the privilege of calling UWEC their alma mater. Now at their 100-year mark of homecoming celebrations, staff and students helped former students take a trip down memory lane.
Alaina Hammond, a curatorial intern at the university said “the 1920’s and 30’s there wasn’t a lot of variety in the activities they did because there just wasn’t as many students, but there still was a sense of comradery and Blugold spirit that was always present.”
University archivist, Greg Kocken said many students would “be able to see just how it has changed and evolved and just what it has meant to this institution.”
The collaborative efforts made a homecoming exhibit celebrating the historic milestone. Showcasing old marching band and football uniforms, event the good old football championship trophy.
“In the university archives, what was exciting for us is to be able to dig into the records, dig into the artifacts and see what was there. We had a lot of amazing images, and artifacts and really just stories that came through the archives that helped us understand homecoming over the years,” Kocken said.
Anyone visiting the exhibit can watch some clips for themselves, with the help of their QR code.
History making a comeback from pep rallies and football games, to the choreographed sound of the Blugold Marching Band.
There’s also a once-upon-a-time tradition that rallied everyone back in the day. Kocken said that was “a homecoming bonfire. This really big, raging bonfire. And I think it reflects really well on our student body that in the 1970’s we said we need to end this tradition. They were thinking about the environment, they were thinking about pollution at that time.”
Making the old saying ‘teamwork makes the dream work’ more than true when making the display come to life.
“I only had two months to do all the research, pull the pictures, write the panels, get the display items ready. So to say we did that in that short amount of time is really unreal, but it was very exciting and I just can’t wait to more stuff like this in the future,” Hammond said.
With the universities long history and lasting impact on current students, many hope to continue celebrating homecoming with their fellow blugolds for 100 more years.