Presidential Perspective - October 24, 2024
Baylor Students, Faculty, Staff and Parents:
What an awesome time the First Gent and I had welcoming our students to “Dinner with the Livingstones” on Tuesday evening at Allbritton House! It was certainly a fantastic kickoff to Homecoming Week 2024.
As I shared last week, Baylor hosted the first-ever collegiate Homecoming back in 1909. With the First Gent being a history buff, I thought I would turn to Alan Lefever (BA ’84), director of the Texas Baptist Historical Collection and author of The History of Baylor Sports, for some additional Baylor Homecoming historical insights that you might not know:
- Legendary Baylor President Samuel Palmer Brooks should be known as the “Father of Homecoming.” Baylor was the first college to hold a recognizably modern homecoming, with a bonfire, pep rally, parade and football game, and the event was Brooks’ idea.
- Baylor had only been in Waco for 23 years when the first Homecoming was held, so many of the alumni who came had never been to this campus. (They had gone to school at the original campus in Independence.)
- The opening ceremony at that first Homecoming was held in the chapel of Carroll Library (before the fire). There, Brooks greeted the gathered alumni: “To those who always went to class, welcome… To those who rarely went to class or did your assignments, we welcome you, too.”
- George W. Truett, an 1897 Baylor graduate who was just a few years into a nearly 50-year stint as pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, was the featured guest and keynote speaker at that first Homecoming.
- The first Homecoming game was a 6-3 win over TCU, which was still located just across town at the time. (That fire that would prompt their move to Fort Worth happened the following spring.)
For more Baylor Homecoming history, listen to (or read the transcript from) the full Baylor Connections interview with Alan, who also shares stories from Homecoming celebrations down the years. He’s such a treasure trove of Baylor and Baptist history!
Some updates for this week:
- HOMECOMING SCHEDULE: This year’s Homecoming promises to offer something for everyone, from first-year students to alums who graduated from Baylor 50-plus years ago. First-year students are invited to Mass Meeting and the bonfire build TONIGHT and the entire Baylor Family is invited to Friday’s Homecoming at the Hurd, Singspiration, Royal & Pure Homecoming Stroll-Off, Extravaganza, Pep Rally and Bonfire, and Saturday’s Parade, Homecoming at the Hurd, Baylor Alumni Tailgate and the 2:30 p.m. football game against Oklahoma State. Whew … let’s fling that green and gold!
- MAPPING JUPITER’S ICY MOON: NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft successfully launched on Oct. 14, and Baylor has a close connection to the mission that will make 49 close flybys of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. Alyssa Mills, a Ph.D. candidate in geosciences under planetary geophysicist Peter B. James, Ph.D., is a graduate affiliate of NASA's Europa Clipper mission science team, and she’s using machine learning, a form of AI, to map the seafloor of Europa, which is believed to have a vast liquid ocean beneath its icy surface. This exciting research to understand the characteristics of Europa could provide critical insights into the moon’s potential habitability.
- FOSSIL DONATION: Baylor is proud to have played a key role in unearthing the only known Columbian mammoth nursery herd, a groundbreaking discovery in Waco in 1978 that continues to fascinate scientists, educators and the public alike. On Monday, Baylor and Waco Mammoth National Monument celebrated the transfer of thousands of fossils and original photographs from Baylor excavations to the National Park Service. While all federally owned specimens will remain housed in the state-of-the-art Geosciences Collections at the Mayborn Museum Complex, this transfer represents a new chapter in a thriving partnership with the National Park Service, which allows Baylor to continue collaborative research and education efforts to understand life in Central Texas 65,000 years ago.
- FACULTY/STAFF OPEN ENROLLMENT: Benefits Open Enrollment for 2025 began Oct. 15 for faculty and staff and will end this Tuesday, Oct. 29. This is a once-a-year opportunity to review and update benefits elections, including health-related insurances. Please note that this year is an active enrollment, and faculty and staff must log into Benefitfocus to change or keep benefits elections. Learn more at 2025 Benefits Enrollment.
I hope to see you around campus over the next several days … Happy Homecoming!
Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D.
President
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
My front yard was overflowing with students Tuesday night as we kicked off Homecoming 2024 with Dinner with the Livingstones!