Homecoming Doubles as UNC `Alumni Weekend'

For many fans this Homecoming weekend, the game will be as much about nostalgia as victory.

The General Alumni Association and alumni volunteers have made an effort this Homecoming weekend to get as many old Carolina hands as possible into the stands and the town.

This is a change from the traditional, student-oriented Homecoming festivities - so much so that the association is calling Homecoming "Alumni Weekend."

"It's really neat that (Alumni Weekend) is part of Homecoming," said Linda Rainey, coordinator of the GAA's Carolina Club.

The association is organizing reunions specifically for the classes of 1950, 1975 and 1990, as well as for the 20th annual Black Alumni Reunion, the largest of all.

"The Black Alumni weekend is the really big one that blows the rest of us away - there will be some 800 people there," Rainey said.

Other classes will also reunite in a less official capacity.

"They are billing this as an all-alumni weekend. The GAA has planned nearly all the events.

"There will be special seating (at the game) so that we can all see each other," said Carol Hooks, class of 1990.

"This will be more of a young alumni reunion for the classes from 1990 to 2000."

Mike Crisp, 1995 senior class president, said he is definitely coming to Chapel Hill for the football game, his class' fifth reunion and his own special memories of UNC.

"I hope to walk in the steps that I walked in five years ago in the place that contributed so much to who I am today," he said.

Crisp said he has happy memories of his seven years of college and law school at UNC.

"In that amount of time, a place starts to become yours," he said.

Crisp said his fondest memory is of the convocation for the University's bicentennial at Kenan Stadium in 1993.

President Clinton spoke and UNC alumnus Charles Kuralt gave his famous speech in which he called UNC the "University of the people," which has been used in various UNC slogans.

"Clinton's speech was great, but Kuralt certainly took the cake," Crisp said.

Hooks was the student body treasurer during her senior year and is still leading her class in their tenth reunion.

"We're just working on getting in touch with our classmates and getting them to come back," Hooks said.

Hooks wants to see some of her Alpha Delta Pi sorority sisters and visit their house on Rosemary Street.

"I'm looking forward to being back on campus with so many friends, being back in the (sorority) house, seeing how things were and seeing how things have changed," she said.

Hooks said the weekend's full schedule of alumni activities has her worried about fitting it all in.

"We're going to a sorority brunch, a pregame brunch, the game and the after-game party, so we will be exhausted by the end of the day," she said.

Ann Maxwell, class of 1975, has been helping the GAA organize a party at the Carolina Inn for her class' 25th reunion.

She said she hopes to make class reunions a bigger part of University life to keep alumni closer to the school and the memories associated with it.

"It's fun for the alumni - I think it's very important for the University. It builds strong ties to the University," Maxwell said.

"I'm hoping it will lead to checks in the mail someday."

Maxwell wants every class to have some alumni milestones to renew their ties to UNC, something that will draw graduates back to the University in years to come.

"I'm hoping that the 25th reunion will become a Carolina tradition."