Homecoming 2024 celebrations usher in ‘Golden Hour’ for MC family

Special to The Clinton Courier

     Mississippi College has a number of events planned for faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends to enjoy October 24-25 during Mississippi College’s 2024 Homecoming.

     As the theme suggests, the Homecoming celebrations reflect a “Golden Hour” for the state’s oldest institution of higher learning, as it draws closer to its bicentennial year.

     Festivities will kick off on Friday, October 25, with a golf tournament, when about two dozen teams compete in the annual four-person scramble with a shotgun start to earn one of three top prizes. The competition boasts a new venue this year – the newly-renovated Refuge Golf Club in Flowood. A cookout lunch for all participants will begin at noon, with the tournament to follow at 1 p.m.

     At 1 p.m., in room 116 of the Aven Fine Arts building, MC’s state-of-the-art media center will be named for an MC alum and one of the Department of Communication’s most ardent supporters – Beth Baker Janser. The facility serves as headquarters for the department’s award-winning Blue and Gold Media and provides students with meeting and conference space and equipment for editing and producing their stories.

     Mississippi College alumni who have graduated within the last ten years are invited to reminisce with their peers at the annual Blues and Gold Gathering off campus. It will start at 7 p.m., and the location will be determined soon.

     An MC Homecoming tradition for a number of years, Follies is a competition that showcases club and tribe members in themed skits with original choreography, music, and sets.

     It will kick off at 7 p.m. in Nelson Hall’s Swor Auditoriam, featuring performers who infuse clever humor about life at MC into their acts, lending an “insider’s perspective” to the production. Tickets are required for the performance.

     Also at 7 p.m. on Friday, members of MC’s Golden Anniversary Class of 1974 will be welcomed into the Fifty-Year Club by members of the Classes of 1970 through 1979. The 1974 class picture and medal ceremony will take place during the event, which will be held in Alumni Hall.

     Saturday, October 26, will kick off early, at 6 a.m., with the annual Coach “Hap” Hudson Homecoming 5k Run/Walk.

     The Department of Kinesiology’s landmark Homecoming event, the seventeenth annual 5k race and walk through the streets of Olde Towne Clinton is named for a beloved professor, coach and member of the MC Athletics Hall of Fame.

     Coach “Hap” Hudson will be on hand to fire the starter’s pistol at the race, which begins at Cockroft Hall. All proceeds will go to a scholarship at MC established by Hudson and his wife, Johnnie Ruth.

     10 a.m. Saturday brings a pillar of Homecoming to Anderson Hall in the B.C. Rogers Student Center, the National Alumni Association Awards Brunch, honoring the University’s distinguished alumni.

     Award recipients this year will include Jean Pittman Williams ’55, Alumna of the Year; Reed Thomas Nunnelee ’06, ’12, Young Alumnus of the Year; John William “Billy’ Roberts ’72 and Dr. Marcus Thompson ’96, Order of the Golden Arrow; and Bill Sones ‘71, Award of Service.

     Distinguished departmental alumni award recipients across all academic areas will also be recognized during the brunch, which requires an RSVP.

     The most visible sign that Homecoming has arrived at Mississippi College is the display of tents throughout the Quad on Homecoming Saturday. Members of MC classes ending in four and nine from 1959 through 2019 inclusive will gather at their respective tents on Reunion Row to share memories and tell stories about their time at MC.

     The social event of the Homecoming season will culminate with a tailgate meal at noon on Pedestrian Street. Tickets for the meal are required.

     The nationally acclaimed Mississippi College Singers, the University’s premier choral ensemble that has performed at the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and has toured throughout Europe and South Africa, will give a Homecoming concert under the direction of Dr. Beth Everett, MC director of choral activities, at 12:30 p.m. in Provine Chapel on Saturday, and the Choctaw spirt will flow down College Street at 1:30 p.m., when MC President Blake Thompson leads the National Alumni Association Award recipients, MC Marching Band, cheerleaders, dance team and football team on a march toward Robinson-Hale Stadium.

     Parade-goers will enjoy seeing the lineup of creative handmade floats and waving to the Homecoming Court in a spectacle that enhances the gameday atmosphere.

     At 4 p.m., Homecoming festivities will reach a crescendo at the Division II gridiron contest at Robinson-Hale Stadium between Mississippi College and visiting Erskine College, an affiliate member of the Gulf South Conference from Due West, South Carolina.

     Members of MC’s first GSC championship team in 1979 will be recognized in pregame ceremonies, and the Homecoming Court will be introduced at halftime. Tickets are needed for admittance to the game.

     Several school, departmental, social club and athletics reunions, recognitions and activities are also slated for Homecoming weekend. For more information and to RSVP or purchase tickets, visit mc.edu/homecoming.