Baylor Homecoming Parade to Be Broadcast Live on KCEN-TV Ch. 6

Nation’s oldest and largest collegiate homecoming parade also available via livestream

WACO, Texas (Oct. 13, 2021) – Baylor University and KCEN-TV Ch. 6 will team up again to broadcast the 112th anniversary Baylor Homecoming Parade, one of the oldest and largest collegiate homecoming parades in the nation, with live coverage from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, from Fifth Street on the Baylor campus.

The parade also will be streamed live on KCEN’s website, 6 News app and YouTube page. The livestream link also will be shared on KCEN’s Facebook page as well as on Baylor’s official Facebook page.

The parade broadcast is made possible by the generous support of the Sadie Jo Black Family Foundation. Returning to host the parade this year are the “Voice of the Bears” John Morris and Lori Fogleman.

The Baylor Homecoming Parade will begin at 8 a.m. at Eighth Street and Austin Avenue in downtown Waco. It will travel down Austin and make a right on Fourth Street. Progressing down Fourth, the parade will go under the I-35 overpass and proceed to enter campus on Fifth Street. The parade is expected to arrive at Baylor at approximately 8:30 a.m.

This year’s parade will feature more than 120 entries, including 11 elaborately designed floats, 13 balloons, marching bands and musical acts, campus and community organizations, and university, state and community dignitaries, including Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., and First Gent Brad Livingstone.

This year’s grand marshal of the Baylor Homecoming Parade is Scott Drew, head coach of the 2021 National Champion Baylor men’s basketball team.

Following the parade, the Baylor Bears will host No. 19 BYU – a future Big 12 Conference member – with kickoff at 2:30 p.m. in McLane Stadium. Limited tickets are available at BaylorBears.com.

History of the Baylor Homecoming Parade

In the fall of 1909, Baylor University alumni received a surprising invitation from their alma mater. A postcard signed by three professors asked the graduates to return to campus to “renew former associations and friendships, and catch the Baylor spirit again.”

Thus began Baylor University’s Homecoming, the nation’s first collegiate Homecoming celebration.

Throughout the years, the Baylor Homecoming Parade – one of the oldest and largest collegiate Homecoming parades in the nation – has featured horse-drawn carriages and wagons, bands, student and civic organizations, dignitaries and more. Student organizations create floats that add to the campus spirit for the upcoming football game, and giant balloons and other participants add to the excitement of the parade.

After the first parade traveled from downtown Waco to the campus in 1909, Baylor defeated TCU in the Homecoming football game 6-3 on Carroll Field, a simple dirt and grass field located behind Carroll Science Building where Vara Martin Daniel Plaza and the Bill Daniel Student Center now stand.

Despite the initial success of the first Baylor Homecoming Parade, the event – indeed, Homecoming itself – did not become an annual tradition until after World War II.

The second Baylor Homecoming Parade took place in 1915, six years after the first, and the third was not until 1924. Afterward, Homecoming was held intermittently until World War II and, after the war, resumed on an annual basis from 1945 to the present.

Floats first appeared in the parade in 1915. Floats became standard for the parade during the 1920s.

It wasn’t until the 1950s that the floats began to take note of Baylor’s opponent for the Homecoming football game. By 1960, practically every float carried a slogan that forecast doom for the mascot of the opposing team.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.