D A R T M OU T H | On Campus
Homecoming Traditions: Then and Now
ANNUAL CELEBRATION TRACED TO A HOLY, NOBLE PURPOSE
By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer
H
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Founded in 1769 under a royal ing undergraduates into the perma-
o m e c o m i n g p r ov i d e d a
much-anticipated opportunity charter from King George III, the nent duties and responsibilities of the
for Dartmouth College to welcome college was named for the second Earl college fellowship,” according to The
back alumni and share beloved Big of Dartmouth in gratitude for his Dartmouth newspaper.
support of Wheelock’s gospel-mind-
Green traditions with frosh.
Along those lines, Tucker re-
On October 6 and 7, alumni de- ed educational endeavors.
mained committed to the need for
Given this godly heritage, as well students to embrace public service,
scended upon Hanover for a weekend
of festivities, including the annual as a vision for training the next gen- as well as for Dartmouth to reflect
parade and famed bonfire. As
a highlight of the weekend, Big
Green relished in its biggest
comeback in 136 years of var-
sity football, energizing a crowd
of 8,000-plus at Memorial Field
with a 28-27 victory over Yale.
For Dartmouth, however,
homecoming’s origins are about
more than dramatic touch-
downs, fancy tailgating, and
green-clad parades.
Homecoming traditions at
Dartmouth date back more
than 120 years and point to the
college’s deeper roots and
founder Eleazar Wheelock’s
Photo: Michael Lin, courtesy of www.thedartmouth.com.
mission to birth an education- The bonfire is a Homecoming tradition at Dartmouth College.
al and missionary training cen-
ter that would establish the
groundwork for the evangelization of eration of leaders, William Jewett rich moral and spiritual character.
Native Americans.
Tucker, the college’s ninth president,
By 1904, the annual programming
Not long after graduating from held Dartmouth Night on September included a procession of the Earl of
Yale in 1733, Wheelock was moved 17, 1895 to greet and celebrate alum- Dartmouth from the Hanover Inn
by the First Great Awakening. For his ni. A Congregationalist minister, he and hymns and a historical address
part, the revivalist preached hundreds was a member of the class of 1861.
in the college’s church. The eighth earl
of moving sermons as religious fervor
Tucker’s efforts to unite students visited from England as the guest of
spread across primitive New England with a sense of Dartmouth’s lineage honor for laying the cornerstone for
during the late 1730s and 1740s.
grew out of earlier gatherings of the a rebuilding of Dartmouth Hall after
Indeed, Dartmouth’s motto of Vox student body known as Rhetoricals. a fire earlier that year.
clamantis in deserto is a reference to Held inside a chapel in Dartmouth
In 1923, the college connected the
John 1:23: “I am the voice of one Hall, Tucker described such meetings annual gatherings, including the pop-
calling in the wilderness…”
as “a rare opportunity of indoctrinat- ular bonfire, to football. That year,
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