In 1930 the Alumni Association offered a prize of $10 for the best decorated exterior of a fraternity house during homecoming weekend. The Sigma Phi Epsilon House on West Cumberland was declared the winner. It was entwined in UT and UNC colors. On the roof of the porch was a life-size cardboard replica of an … Continued

For the 1971 Homecoming, the Homecoming Queen election was replaced by the election of a homecoming object, the worst problem on campus. First place went to commuter parking.

A Homecoming parade was first held in 1925, wending through downtown Knoxville. Homecoming parades were elaborate ones, involving large, elaborate floats. The parades moved from downtown to the Strip. The tradition disappeared for a few years as student interest in production of expensive floats waned. In 1977 a smaller parade was revived, and in 1980 … Continued

The 2014 Homecoming Parade included a “little Vols” component, a program through which parents pushed their children in strollers decorated like floats in the parade. The stroller brigade rolled alongside the Kerbela Shriners and Smokey Jr.

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 … Continued

In August 2005 a $650,879 three-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services, allowed UT to offer the nation’s first Homeland Security Nursing program.  Both master’s and doctoral level concentrations in homeland security were implemented in a two-track system—a management track and a … Continued

In 1915 an honor system was instituted, with the executive department of the system being vested in a council of five students: one from each class and a chair chosen from the student body at large. Harry Gray was the first chair. In May 1920 the All Students’ Club adopted a constitution for an honor … Continued

In 1832 four honorary MA degrees were conferred. One honorary AB degree was also conferred upon Perez Dickinson, later a prominent member of the board of trustees. (It should be noted that the 1827 master’s bestowed upon James McBath and other master’s “in course” degrees could also be considered, at least to some degree, honorary.) … Continued

In spring 1984 two undergraduate Clement Hall resident assistants sent pamphlets across campus through campus mail soliciting students to send $18 with their application to purchase a “lifetime membership” in the honorary society Lambda Kappa Mu. The pamphlet sent to students said, “Upon graduation and the search for a career, members [of Lambda Kappa Mu] … Continued

The annual Honors Banquet has its roots in the institutional Awards Day assemblies begun in 1937 and the Honors Day tradition, begun by members of Omicron Delta Kappa and Mortar Board in 1951 as an event at which new members were “tapped.” SGA and ODK continued to sponsor the event. In 1963 the honors celebration … Continued