Howard’s 100th Homecoming Without Tailgate: Students and Alumni React to the Change

Howard Homecoming attendees crowded the sidewalk following the Yardfest: Day 1 Concert last year. The 2023 Tailgate faced safety concerns due to overcapacity near the parking lot at 2328 Georgia Ave. NW. (Couresty/101 Mag-Anijah Franklin)

Howard University announced this year’s Homecoming will not include a tailgate. Students, alumni, and professors have differing opinions about the possible impact on this year’s Homecoming experience without the anticipated event. 

Some members of the Howard community speculate the cancellation stems from safety concerns due to overcrowding at last year’s tailgate. Viral videos spread across social media showing attendees climbing over the parking lot’s fence to get inside.

Autumn McDougle, a senior public relations major, attended the tailgate in 2022 but was unable to get into last year’s event due to overcrowding.

 “Me and my friends, we had pulled up to the tailgate, and it was a huge crowd of people. Police were there, and they were telling everyone that they had to turn around and that we couldn’t come in,” McDougle said. 

McDougle suggested an alternative location for the tailgate to be on the Yard.

“When people weren’t able to get in for the tailgate in the parking lot, a lot of people went to the Yard, and they were playing the football game on the large screen. There was space, and I’m like, ‘Why don’t you hold it here?’” McDougle said.

Since Howard Homecoming’s 100th anniversary coincides with the presidential election featuring Democratic nominee and Howard alumna Kamala Harris, some speculate this could be a reason for the tailgate’s cancellation.

“There’s a lot of eyes on Howard right now,” said senior biology major Nora Auma. “There’s an election going on with a Black woman who graduated from Howard. And it’s just like anything during this time that happens at Howard is going to be used against her.” 

According to Howard Homecoming’s webpage, this year’s Homecoming theme is  the “100th Homecoming: Howard University Yard of Fame.” It will take place during the week of Oct. 13 starting with a Call to Chapel and ending with an alumni jazz brunch on Oct. 20.

Howard professors and alumni  Jennifer Thomas and  JoVon McCalester noted that there has been a shift in Howard Homecoming since their time as undergraduate students. 

“I remember when I was an undergrad decades ago. We didn’t have the tailgate. So tailgating was not an option for us,” said Professor Thomas, a former Ms. Howard. 

Professor McCalester reflected on how the tailgate has evolved since it became an annual tradition in 2012, noting that alumni will not be entirely without alternatives in its absence.

 “The vision of those who put it together was that Howard students and the Howard community would be able to rent car space and then they could be there and have a good time,” McCalester said. “But when I tell you the years that I’ve gone since it began, I look around, and I’m like, ‘Who are these people?’ There are so many non-Howard people.”

Howard’s Homecoming gained popularity over the years and its popularity brings an influx of non-Howard attendees. This increases the difficulty for the university to manage the event. 

“It’s been a very hard time for Howard to manage the crowd that isn’t necessarily subject to them,” McCalester said. “If it’s not your community, it’s not the school that you go to, you have no connection to the school, you have no reason to sort of try to preserve peace.”

Some Howard students have never experienced a Howard Homecoming tailgate.

Kiera King, a first-year speech pathology graduate student and football fan, said the news of the tailgate cancellation was disappointing. 

“I kind of felt sad,” King said. “I feel like it will be a grieving process almost. You do sort of set up an expectation of like, ‘I’m going to go to Howard University and I’m going to learn and have these social experiences that I’ve heard so much about.’”

King also highlighted the challenges faced by graduate students, who she said have limited opportunities to engage with others due to demanding schedules. 

“Being a graduate student, we really don’t get as many opportunities to engage with others because we are so busy and have so many obligations, especially throughout the week,” King said.

 “So having things like the tailgate on a weekend or just a time where other faculty are also engaging gives us a chance to at least socialize, even if it’s just for a moment, you know,” she added.

For those of the Howard community who have experienced it, they are looking for an alternative.

Auma, who made a point about eyes being on Howard because the vice president is an alumna, said Howard’s students would find an alternative.

 “I really don’t know about an alternative. I feel like it just shouldn’t have been canceled,” she said. “But I know that students are going to make an alternative. There’s going to be a tailgate; it just won’t be promoted by Howard.”

With the tailgate no longer on the Homecoming schedule, the Howard community—undergraduate students to alumni and professors—is brainstorming alternatives in its absence.

Professor Thomas suggested that students find other ways to come together in an organized manner, much like she and her peers did before the tailgate became a tradition. 

“I would say find some creative ways to still have the experience that you will remember,” she said, recalling how sororities and fraternities would host cabarets and other events. 

“Maybe a solution is to return to, instead of people going to the club, maybe organizations—there are so many more now than when I was a student”—can have different parties or cabarets,” she added.