Homecoming: It’s more than a football game
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By Olivia West
MOUNT AYR, Iowa — There is a certain time every fall when Mount Ayr seems to remember who it is.
The signs start appearing. School colors show up around town. Students dress in ways they probably would not dare to on an ordinary Tuesday. Class competitions become serious business. Former Raiders come back home and the bleachers at the football stadium begin to fill up.
And for one week, it seems as though nearly everyone knows it is Homecoming.
Homecoming at Mount Ayr Community Schools is about much more than a football game. It’s a tradition that has been repeated by generations of Raiders — some of whom have long since graduated, moved away and started families of their own.
The details have changed over the years. The themes change. The candidates change. The games change. Even the ways students celebrate have changed. But the basic idea remains remarkably familiar. A tradition with some history.
Homecoming has been part of Mount Ayr school life for generations. Old records show that the tradition once included many of the same ingredients that are familiar today. A 1970s account of Mount Ayr Homecoming described a parade with dozens of entries, the selection of a Homecoming queen, a community meal, a bonfire and a pep rally.
The football game was the centerpiece, but it was hardly the only event. That tradition has continued through the years.
In 1963, one of the most celebrated football teams in Mount Ayr history played its Homecoming game in front of what the Mount Ayr Hall of Fame describes as the largest crowd ever to see a football game in Mount Ayr at that time. The Raiders defeated Bedford 19-0.
For the people who were there, the score may have been what appeared in the newspaper the following week. But the memory of the night was undoubtedly about more than the final score.
That is one of the peculiar things about Homecoming.
The game is remembered., but so is everything surrounding it. Today’s Homecoming week carries that same spirit.
Students have dress-up days, class competitions and activities leading up to the big game. The parade brings students and community members together, followed by a pep rally and the football game.
In recent years, Homecoming has also included the recognition of former students and athletes through the Mount Ayr Community Schools Hall of Fame.
That has given the celebration another connection to the past. The Hall of Fame was established to recognize individuals and groups who have brought honor to the schools and community through extracurricular accomplishments, contributions to the school and achievements after graduation and its induction ceremonies have become part of Homecoming weekend.
So while current students are celebrating where they are, former students are being reminded of where they came from. More than school spirit, perhaps that is what makes a small-town Homecoming different.
In a larger community, a high school football game can be a school event. In Mount Ayr, it can become a community event. Parents come to watch their children. Grandparents come because they have watched generations of Raiders. Alumni come back because they remember standing on the same field, walking the same halls or sitting in the same stands.
And for a few hours on a Friday night, people who may not have seen one another in months — or years — have a reason to stand together under the lights. That may be the real tradition of Homecoming.
The student wearing Raider colors today may someday return for a Homecoming decades from now with children or grandchildren of their own.
They may not remember every dress-up day or every football score.
But they may remember the feeling of walking into the stadium on a cool fall night, hearing the band, seeing the stands full and realizing that, for one night, an entire community was there together.
That is what traditions do.
They give the present a connection to the past — and give the future something worth coming home to.
And every fall, the Raiders get to do it all over again.
