UConn students celebrated Husky pride and the football team with homecoming festivities this past week.
Homecoming celebrations took place throughout the week, kicking off with a parade that led into a carnival. During the week there was a comedy show, a lip sync competition, and a fan fest.
The Student Union Board of Governors’ (SUBOG) Major Weekends Committee and Sports Committee were responsible for putting the weekend together.
The group is “in charge of all the big weekends,” says Erica Wong ’26 (CLAS), Major Weekends chair. She says the committee has 10 to 20 members. Four vice chairs support Wong in her leadership role. The chair of the Sports Committee is Brittney Juarez.
The parade was the first event of the week. Nine teams registered and had three hours to decorate golf carts as their floats. Once decorated, two members from each team joined the caravan and drove down Fairfield Way from Gampel Pavilion to Storrs Hall. The parade ended at the nursing building and the carnival commenced.
“Everything’s free at the carnival,” says Julia Pfeiffer ’27 (CLAS), the special events chair. “We have two food trucks coming. Hops 44 and Uncle D’s.” The trucks served food like burgers, mac and cheese and ribs, says Pfeiffer.
The carnival looked a little different this year. For previous homecoming celebrations, it has been a daytime event; this year it was open from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The committee wanted to create a more authentic experience by changing the timeframe. “You get the whole carnival feel with the lights, the music and everything,” says Pfeiffer.
There were rides at the carnival for students to enjoy. SUBOG brought in a “swinger,” which is what it sounds like: carnival swings. There was a ride called Scat. “It’s kind of like the gravitron,” said Pfeiffer. And the third attraction was called Sizzler, which spun students around in tiny cars. Pfeiffer called the combination of rides “the three S’s.”
Another change to the itinerary from previous years was that homecoming weekend was not aligned with parents’ weekend. Usually, they fall on the same dates, but this year the committee wanted to have a more student-oriented weekend to celebrate the success of the men’s basketball team.
The theme of the weekend was double trouble, to celebrate back-to-back basketball championships. Participating teams incorporated this theme into their parade floats and lip-sync performances.
UConn also hosted Lewberger, a comedy trio band known for their goofy songs and satirical spins. A comedy show was not something the committee had done for homecoming before, Wong says.
The performance was at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts and was free to students. SUBOG Comedy Chair Sarah Kavarnos was responsible for booking the troop.
The annual lip sync competition was held at Gampel Pavilion. Nine different teams took the stage and performed songs and dances to a crowd that filled about a quarter of the arena, with the Encore Dance Team taking home top honors.
The final event of the weekend was the Fan Fest on Founders Green. “Fan Fest is something that we’ve done, but we’ve never done it this big,” says Wong.
There were several athletics-oriented carnival games and activities for students to enjoy for free. Tug-of-war, potato sack racing, sports-themed carnival games, a mechanical bull, caricatures, t-shirt and tote bag airbrushing stands, and other giveaways were enjoyed by students. A Hops 44 truck served soft pretzels.
SUBOG also brought the Men’s Basketball National Championship Trophy on display for students to see and take photos with.
Perhaps best of all, Homecoming Weekend was capped off by a win on the football field, as the Huskies beat Rice University 17-10.
Upcoming major weekend events include Winter Weekend and Senior Send-off.
