The first homecoming queen, Betty Walker of Knoxville was crowned at the Tennessee-North Carolina football game on November 4, 1950. The Homecoming Queen title was abolished by the All Students’ Club in 1954 on grounds that the designation took attention away from the Miss Tennessee title. The school newspaper, the Orange and White, crusaded to restore the title, and in 1955 Ann McNurry was crowned homecoming queen by Senator Albert Gore Sr.
The student body elected homecoming queens from 1966 through 1970, when Daily Beacon columnist Vince Staten orchestrated a write-in effort to have himself elected homecoming queen in protest against what he considered to be domination of homecoming activities by Greek organizations. He was elected (with 2,500 votes) but the Homecoming Advisory Committee refused to crown him queen, saying that the committee had never declared him a candidate. He appealed to the Student Tribunal, which declared the election invalid, and the tradition of electing a queen stopped.
The tradition was reinstituted from 1982 to 1985. In 1982 homecoming queen Denise Conrad and her court were not crowned at halftime of the homecoming football game (Memphis State vs. UT) when the NCAA 20-minute halftime allotment ran out almost immediately after the Memphis State and UT bands finished playing, and the queen and court and other homecoming winners were rushed off the field. UT received a delay of game penalty for not clearing the field.
In 1985 fewer than one thousand students voted in the election of the queen, and in 1986 the All Campus Events Committee decided not to hold an election. In 2002 the All Campus Events Committee created the Miss Homecoming title, with restructured qualifications for the individual so designated. Instead of a beauty contest, winners were to be positive role models—women who were seniors and had excelled in leadership, campus involvement, volunteer work, and personality. The nominees were narrowed to 10 finalists by a panel of alumni and graduate students. A different five-member panel of faculty and Knoxville community leaders met with the semifinalists and narrowed the field to five finalists, and students voted online for the winner. In 2013 “Homecoming Highnesses” (Mary Beth Overton and Dani Rosenberg) were crowned in a competition that included men as members of the homecoming court and candidates for Highness.