It was an “U-ra-ra Wisconsin” weekend as University of Wisconsin alumni made their way back to Madison this weekend for the annual Homecoming parade along State Street and the pep rally held at Memorial Union Terrace.
With this influx of former badgers in town, shops and restaurants on State Street were busier than most days in Madison.
Alumni and families are an especially large portion of foot traffic and sales during Homecoming weekend, University Bookstore manager Angie Maniaci said.
“Homecoming brings in a lot of alumni. They only come for that one day a year, so they want to see what’s new in the store and pick out a new shirt or gift item,” Maniaci said.
Sonny Torres, bar manager at Vintage Spirits and Grill on University Avenue, agreed that there are a lot of alumni, as well as young children and families, who stop by during Homecoming weekend.
“It was busier [this year], but every homecoming is the same way. You always see a lot of old faces,” Torres said.
Although much of the excitement was due to the fact that the football team was not facing much of a challenge in their game Saturday, Maniaci said a later game and a more intense rivalry between the Badgers and the opposing team would have led to more business.
“The later the game, the more people like to come in and look around before kickoff. Since this was an 11:00 a.m. start, we didn’t see all that many people before,” Maniaci said. “There was a surge after the game but … we see a lot more customers before the game for a 2:30 p.m. than after a game for a 11:00 a.m.”
However, Homecoming weekend is not just a big source of sales for local businesses, but excitement as well and both the game and the parade also help to fuel that enthusiasm.
Some notable appearances at the parade were Chancellor Rebecca Blank, the UW Men’s Basketball Team and Grand Marshall Casey Rotter, who received the “Forward under 40 Award” this year from the Wisconsin Alumni Association and gave this year’s “RED Talk.” Rotter is a manager for UNICEF’s Next Generation, a fundraising campaign.
Thomas Becker, a UW alumni, graduated from Wisconsin almost 45 years ago, and he still comes to Madison for homecoming almost every year. He sees a change in the atmosphere from when he attended school here, especially in the students.
“There are a lot of differences. They get more excited, they get more into it,” Becker said.
Becker and his wife are season ticket holders and frequently come back to Madison for football games.
The pep rally started off with the University of Wisconsin marching band playing classic football season songs while cheerleaders led the crowd in dance, followed by appearances from head football coach Gary Andersen and Bucky the Badger, who predicted how many points Wisconsin would score against Maryland — 45 — and he did the pushups to prove his certainty.
Although the University Bookstore is located near the very end of the parade, which Maniaci said brings excitement, the event itself did not necessarily bring more sales to the store on Friday night.
However, compared to a normal game day, Torres said there is a much more noticeable sense of excitement in the Badger community each year during Homecoming.
