Alumni come home for weekend festivities

Anticipation has been building this week, and tomorrow IU's 2003 Homecoming, "Sweet Home Indiana," will officially begin.\nSenior Jo Marchi, Student Athletic Board Homecoming director, has been working since July to help plan the week's events.\n"Homecoming week creates a good atmosphere in the town overall," Marchi said. "I really think it'll be a lot of fun. It's a great chance for alumni to come back to campus and remember what it's like to be a student and for students to welcome back the alumni. Homecoming involves everyone, and hopefully we can all get behind the team and help cheer them on to a win." \nA weekend full of festivities is planned with the "Yell Like Hell," spirit competition on Thursday, the Homecoming parade and pep rally on Friday and the Saturday morning football showdown between the Hoosiers and Northwestern University. \n"Yell Like Hell," which is sponsored by the Student Alumni Association, will kick off the Homecoming weekend at 7:30 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union's Alumni Hall. Participating groups will perform three-minute skits, dance routines or musical acts, and the group that shows the most Homecoming spirit will be declared the winner. Also scheduled to perform are the campus a cappella groups Straight No Chaser and Ladies First as well as the IU Pom Squad. Admission to "Yell Like Hell" is free, and the general public is encouraged to attend. \nStudent groups will be competing throughout the weekend to be the most enthusiastic and spirited. Including the "Yell Like Hell" competition, groups will also be awarded points for a banner and window-painting contest, and for the parade float that best portrays Indiana spirit. The overall winner for these spirit competitions will be announced at the football game's halftime. \nHomecoming spirit will take to the streets Friday with IU's 45th annual Homecoming parade, which will start at 5:30 p.m. on Rose Avenue, next to Willkie Quad, between Third and Seventh Streets and then wind down E. Third Street to its end at the Sample Gates. IU President Adam Herbert and his wife, Karen, will serve as parade grand marshals. \nSenior Maggie Brozio, Student Alumni Association president, said the parade will feature over 35 entrants, including the Marching Hundred and the Homecoming court. \nSondra Inman, director of Student Programs for the IU Alumni Association, said she thinks the Homecoming parade will be one of the weekend's biggest highlights.\n"I've been to the parade as a community member before, but this is my first year on staff with IU, so I'm really looking forward to seeing it from the inside out," Inman said. "All of the students have been working so hard to pull it together, so it'll be great to see the end result."\nThe parade will culminate in a pep rally at Sample Gates, where the IU football team captains, cheerleaders, pom squad, RedSteppers and Marching Hundred will set the rousing tone for Saturday morning's matchup between Northwestern and IU at 11:10 a.m. in Memorial Stadium. A bonfire in Dunn Meadow will follow the pep rally. \nIU senior Brad Snyder, who plays tenor drums for the Marching Hundred, said Homecoming weekend is one of the highlights of the year for the band.\n"It's a blast getting to play for so many students, alums, and campus administrators at the pep rally," he said. "There's always so much energy." \nThe 2003 Homecoming king and queen will also be announced at the pep rally.\nThe Homecoming court of five male and five female seniors was chosen from a field of 79 applicants, a big jump from years past, said Student Athletic Board Homecoming Director Jo Marchi.\nAll seniors with a GPA of 2.6 or higher were eligible to apply. Applicants are judged on three essays regarding extracurricular activities and personal statements, which were evaluated by six faculty and administrative judges who selected the 10 members of the Homecoming court. Interviews, which were held Tuesday, will determine the king and queen, who will each receive a $1,000 scholarship. \nSaturday morning will bring more than just the revelry of tailgating and a Big Ten football matchup. Snyder also said the Homecoming halftime show is not to be missed, because certain alumni get to perform in the band once again.\n"It's really great to see all of the alums come back because they're all so excited to come back to the (Marching) Hundred, and it really makes for such a big, full sound on the field," he said. \nMarching Hundred alums are not the only ones who will get a taste of their old glory days at IU this weekend. Varsity athletes who lettered in IU varsity sports 50 years ago will be honored at the annual I-Men Dinner, a special reunion event Friday night sponsored by the Student Alumni Association.\nBrozio said the I-Men dinner is always a highlight of the Homecoming weekend for students in SAA.\n"It's always so much fun because all of the I-Men have such awesome stories to tell about IU," she said.\nAlumni are also invited to attend the 16th annual Homecoming Brunch on Saturday morning from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Mellencamp Pavillion. \nInman said more than 900 alumni are expected to attend.\nHomecoming weekend will wind down Saturday night with the annual Homecoming show. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will be featured in two performances this year at the IU Auditorium. The first show is sold out, but tickets are still available for Seinfeld's second set, which will start at 9:30 p.m. Contact the IU Auditorium at 855-1103 for more information. \nBrozio said she is planning to focus on enjoying her last Homecoming as a student here at IU. \n"After working four years to plan homecoming every year, it will be really strange to come back after graduation and have someone else plan it," she said. "I'm going to enjoy this year because it's just going to be really different next year to be on the other side of Homecoming as an alum." \n-- Contact staff writer Andrea Minarcek at aminarce@indiana.edu.