The St. Thomas community needs to take advantage of our beautiful campus by making homecoming something students look forward to as much as Tommie-Johnnie weekend.  

Homecoming for other schools is a chance for students to celebrate school spirit, but in the past few years, the Tommie community has not kept up.

After editing video this summer for an on-campus job, I came across archive footage from a football game that I thought had mistakenly been mixed into the St. Thomas sports archive.

Students crowded the quads with food, faculty grilled hamburgers and alumni caught up with college buddies.

Best yet, Tommie was in his prime getting high fives from crowds and crowds of people with spirit like him.

Campus was alive in 2005. What happened?

A lot of students look forward to Tommie-Johnnie more than homecoming because the quality of the matchup is better than what we get for homecoming.

Junior Dylan Wallace agrees Tommie-Johnnie was better than homecoming because of the rich rivalry, which is not the case this weekend.

“We’re playing Hamline, I think,” Wallace said. “It’s going to be a blow out.”

The homecoming parade and pep fest isn’t well attended because families and students have no idea where they are located and when they begin.

Junior Emily Schmitz said she hasn’t gone to the parade since freshman year because she couldn’t tell one was happening.

“You could tell there is something going on,” Schmitz said, “but by no means was it packed.”

I asked 20 students whether or not they went to the pep fest last year, and four said yes, 16 said no.

Senior Chiora Waters played in the pep band last year and said she couldn’t remember what the pep fest was like.

“I just go, play and then leave,” Waters said.

The pep fest was empty. Where is the spirit?

If they don’t remember it, it must have lacked something memorable such as outstanding school spirit.

It all comes back to how proud we are of our school. We have a beautiful campus, successful football team and a great education to be proud of. The St. Thomas community should make an effort to make homecoming as exciting as Tommie-Johnnie weekend.

Hannah Anderson can be reached at ande5385@stthomas.edu