Madison High School’s winter homecoming of the 2016-2017 school year will take place at Connor K. Salm gym on Saturday, February 18th. This homecoming will feature the boys junior varsity and varsity basketball games against Shawe Memorial High School. In between the two games, Madison’s Mr. and Miss Cub will be announced. The homecoming award will go to one senior boy and one senior girl. In anticipation of homecoming, students at Madison have participated in Spirit Week, in which the students dress according to each day’s theme throughout the week. With all of these high school traditions being played out this week, The Madisonian researched the history of homecoming.

Homecoming was originally a college tradition, in which students would come celebrate the final home football game of the season. The first “coming home” celebrations took place around 1910 at Baylor, Illinois and Missouri. These celebrations had similar characteristics all centered around football. The events included rallies, parades, speeches, dances, and events where students could show their school pride. By 1920 homecoming traditions had taken root across the U.S. as an American tradition.

Homecoming quickly spread from a college football tradition to a high school tradition in which the final basketball game was also celebrated. The tradition of selecting a king and queen quickly become associated with the other homecoming events. Students select a group of 12 students who they feel has demonstrated the most school spirit to be on the homecoming court. The whole school votes on one girl and one boy from that group of 12 to be crowned the homecoming king and queen.

Madison Consolidated High school’s princess homecoming court consists of Riley Boone, Lauren Celinski, Aleah Cutshall, Claudia May, Katie Sego, and Taylor Strouse. The prince homecoming court is Daniel Anderson, Zach Burnett, Gunner Jones, Blake Keifer, Bailey Tonelli, and Chase Wattenbarger.

Congratulations to the homecoming court seniors of 2017 as they participate in a tradition that has been going on for 107 years.