Cornell, community enjoy 'true homecoming'

Schoellkopf Field fireworks
Jason Koski/University Photography
Fireworks illuminate the sky above Schoellkopf Field on Sept. 18.
picnic on quad
Lindsay France/University Photography
Cornell community members and residents of Ithaca gather on the Ag Quad for a picnic celebrating the inauguration of President Elizabeth Garrett on Sept. 18.
Students posing with t-shirts
Robert Barker/University Photography
Students enjoy the homecoming fan festival Sept. 19 where they received free T-shirts.
Marshall Deutz running
Robert Barker/University Photography
Cornell's Marshall Deutz runs in the Homecoming football game Sept. 19 against Bucknell.
V.J. Fitzpatrick
Lindsay France/University Photography
Senior wide receiver V.J. Fitzpatrick taps the newly unveiled bronze statue of the unofficial mascot, Touchdown, prior to the Big Red's game against Bucknell.

Alumni, students, faculty, staff and community members came to Cornell Homecoming Sept. 18-19 to see old friends, to celebrate a new president and to enjoy a colorful array of traditions and activities.

The pageantry began Friday morning as Cornell faculty processed from Ho Plaza to the Arts Quad for the installation ceremony of Cornell’s 13th president, Elizabeth Garrett. A community picnic followed on the sunny Ag Quad, featuring boxed lunches, desserts donated by local bakeries and scoops of the official flavor of the inauguration, 24 Garrett Swirl.

The mobile phones were out in force Friday night as the band Go Go Gadjet warmed up a capacity crowd at Schoellkopf Stadium before the fireworks and laser light show, which has become an annual destination for university students and community families.

“I hope you will show love to our newest Ithacan, President Elizabeth Garrett,” Ithaca mayor Svante Myrick ’09 said before the fireworks began. “It is indeed a true homecoming with all of you here.”

Friday evening’s show included colorful laser depictions of Cornell past and present – including graduation caps, a New York City skyline and a breakdancing Touchdown the Bear – set to music. The fireworks, set off from the visitors’ bleachers, were as spectator Mukund Gaur, 8, predicted they would be: “Loud and large.”

Gaur, an Ithaca resident and son of a Cornell professor, came to the fireworks and laser light show with his mother, Shailja Gaur, and sister, Srisha Gaur, 11. The family has attended the fireworks for three years.

Festivities resumed Saturday morning with the Homecoming 5K in the Plantations. Then, a ceremony dedicated the new 1915 Plaza outside Teagle Hall, including a bronze statue of the unofficial Big Red mascot, Touchdown, as students streamed into the Lynah Rink lot to pick up free T-shirts before continuing to the Big Red Fan Festival in Crescent Lot.

Meaghan Gee ’19, a class council member, was having as much fun giving out free T-shirts as students were having picking them up. “It brings everyone together,” she said of the red shirts, customized for each class. “We’re all wearing the same T-shirt. We’re all the same big red family.”

Shaun McCready ’04 and Vanessa Matsis-McCready ’04 came from the New York City area for Homecoming to introduce their son, Cole, 4 months, to the university where the couple met as undergraduates. “We wanted his first trip to be to Cornell,” said Matsis-McCready.

“We come back almost every year,” said Marshall Frank ’61 early Saturday afternoon. He and his wife, Rosanna Frank ’61, enjoyed a performance by the Big Red Marching Band in Crescent Lot. “We love Cornell.”

The Franks put their arms around each other and swayed as the Big Red Band played the alma mater in front of the Fischell Band Center. Several additional members joined the band for the day – Homecoming attracts band alumni every year.

“It’s a tradition,” said Sarah Johnson ’11, a tuba alumna who traveled from Massachusetts to march with the band Saturday. “It’s a thing. When I was a student, alumni would come back.”

Many current students took a break to enjoy the fan festival and football game against Bucknell.

Shana Tubbs, a Brooktondale, New York, resident, watched her son and a friend, both 8, play a giant Twister game in the center of the fan festival; her parents were off visiting the food trucks. Tubbs, who teaches preschool in Ithaca, has brought her family to Homecoming for four years. They saw the fireworks Friday night and her son got to “do a muscle man pose” with Touchdown at the Saturday fan festival.

“This is becoming a family tradition,” she said. “I love the sense of community it creates.”

Kate Klein is a writer for Alumni Affairs and Development.

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