By Jordan Smith | Sports Writer
Homecoming is a time to honor the past legacies of Baylor while also looking into the future and seeing what is yet to come to this wonderful university that inevitably is the heart of Waco.
I absolutely cannot wait for homecoming events to start. Baylor has been a life-changing experience for me so far, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. There is definitely an extra spark around campus with this year’s homecoming. One of the reasons is because it is now getting cold again. I love the cold weather. Summer can be over “bearing” sometimes, pun completely intended.
I am really excited and looking forward to the tradition and the events that are going on around campus with all of my new friends here at Baylor, especially the football game. One of the events I am really interested to see is the Mass Meeting event for all of the freshman and transfer students. Part of this annual event is something called The Immortal Ten.
New Braunfels sophomore Nate Wasserman was a member of the Immortal Ten representation at last year’s homecoming. He enjoyed being able to represent and take part in one of the most important traditions at Baylor University he said.
“It was cool to be a part of that and really learn more about the Immortal Ten, and since I was the torch bearer, I got to partake in that full tradition of handing off the torch and representing that legacy,” Wasserman said.
The Mass Meeting is an event held every year at Baylor during homecoming week as a remembrance to the 10 players, fans and coaches who died on Jan. 22, 1927. A train collided with their charter bus as the Baylor basketball team was heading to Austin to play against the University of Texas at Austin.
Houston freshman Gabrielle Simon recalled a moment that was shared in chapel this week when they were talking about homecoming. It was one of those moments she will never forget as a first-year student.
“Today in chapel there was a presenter, and he was talking about how people come home to this community. It’s not just about who you are right now but how you all have something in common,” said Simon. “One of the things he said that stuck with me was the torch being passed on to the seniors now and seniors in the future. That stuck with me because we’ve all kind of shared the same experiences, but we all have different experiences, and this place means so much that people would come back, and we all bond over Baylor.”
Homecoming. It’s in the name. It’s a time where the alumni of Baylor comes home and for current and new students to experience how magical Baylor really is.
Jordan Smith is a sophomore English major from Cyprus.
