By Arden Berry | Staff Writer
In 28 years, Baylor’s Dr Pepper Hour has grown from a midweek treat to a beloved tradition.
With the help of a certain ice cream and beverage combination, Dr Pepper Hour kicked off a week of Homecoming events Tuesday in the Barfield Drawing Room.
Marblehead, Mass., sophomore Tyler Earp, a Chamber member leading the event, saw it feature photo opportunities with the Baylor mascots and the Dr Pepper Knight, free posters and, of course, Dr Pepper floats.
“It’s a fun event, a nice break from classes,” Earp said. “You get a free float and some pictures and a good kick off to homecoming.”
According to the Student Activities website, Baylor put on “Coke Hour” from 1953 to 1997. In 1997, the event was renamed Dr Pepper Hour, as Baylor became Dr Pepper-exclusive.
Even before 1997, though, Dr Pepper was a part of Waco and Baylor history.
Dr Pepper Museum Associate Director Joy Summar-Smith said she found Dr Pepper advertisements in the Baylor Roundup yearbook as early as 1905.
“That’s paper advertising in yearbooks, and then the football programs came around in the ‘50s and ‘60s,” Summar-Smith said. “Those are really fun to take a look at because you can see who Baylor was playing at that point in time.”
Summar-Smith said Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885.
“It was at the old corner drug store, which is the corner of Fourth and Austin Avenue,” Summar-Smith said. “If you drive by that today, it’s a very big parking lot for city hall, but that is where it was.”
Summar-Smith said the Dr Pepper headquarters relocated to Dallas in the 1920s, but the Waco consumer base remained significant.
“All through this time period, the company’s looking at per capita numbers, like how much Dr Pepper is drunk by the local population, how much is selling,” Summar-Smith said. “Waco consistently is in the top across the country.”
In 1906, she said an artesian manufacturing and bottling company building in Waco finished construction. In the 1960s, the bottling plant closed because the company began bottling Dr Pepper in cans, and the building was too small to manufacture both.
“Eventually, Dr Pepper gives [the building] to Baylor,” Summar-Smith said. “They use it as storage for a while, so there’s another kind of connection with Dr Pepper here … and then the idea comes about for the museum and the company buys the building back from Baylor and then donates it to the museum.”
According to the Dr Pepper Museum website, the museum recently announced a new installation — a 23-foot high Dr Pepper bottle, set to be unveiled in May 2026 for its 35th anniversary.
Even now, the Dr Pepper Museum has connections to Baylor.
“Since then, we’ve also been going over the past couple of years, taking the float truck or serving Dr Pepper floats the way that we do it as part of Dr Pepper Hour every so often, too,” Summar-Smith said.
Additionally, Summar-Smith said at least eight members of her staff, including herself, are Baylor alumni.
“One of the early leaders of the Dr Pepper Museum was a Baylor alumnus,” Summar-Smith said. “He was a Dr Pepper drinker for many years, Wilton Lanning. So I think Waco has a lot of identity in Dr Pepper and a lot of identity in Baylor, and so they’re just a natural partnership.”
Currently, Summar-Smith said the Dr Pepper Museum has an exhibit called “Wildly Refreshing” about animals used in soft drink advertisements. One of the cases in the exhibit displays a cup, mug and commemorative bottles with the Baylor Bear logo, as well as a bear statue drinking Dr Pepper.
“When you think of animals and Dr Pepper, of course, the Baylor Bear is a really big part of that story,” Summar-Smith said. “Fred Gildersleeve, a Waco photographer, was taking pictures of Baylor Bears drinking Dr Pepper back in the 1910s or ‘20s.”
While bears no longer drink Dr Pepper, Dr Pepper Hour continues for Baylor students every Tuesday from 3 to 4 p.m.
“It’s a weekly tradition for students and faculty and staff to get to come together, enjoy a Dr Pepper float and just take a break during the week,” said Sarah Patterson, associate director of Student Activities for Student Union and campus programs.
