Alumni, students and community celebrate annual Tarleton Homecoming Parade

BY DREW FLEMING / Multimedia Journalist

The annual homecoming parade was held on Saturday, Oct. 12.. Like many Tarleton traditions, the homecoming parade has been a celebration for over 100 years. 

This year, the alumni Darrell and Shelly Brown were stationed in front of the gates at Heritage Park to commentate on the parade. 

Darrell is an alumnus that received the Chancellor’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Award in 2022. He is very involved in the Stephenville community, as well as the Stephenville Chamber of Commerce. 

Shelly Brown, currently works as Director of Assessment & Strategic Initiatives and Interim Director of Communications at Tarleton. 

Darrell and Shelly gave background about each organization as their float passed by and took the time to recognize distinguished alumni that were at the parade. 

The Tarleton Alumni Association executive committee and board of directors were thanked for their contribution to planning the parade. 

Sydney Lane is a senior at Tarleton, sweetheart for the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and member of Delta Zeta. 

“My favorite part about the homecoming parade is always seeing all of our great alumni that come back yearly to the homecoming festivities,” Lane said. “I remember when I was little my whole family always came for homecoming so it’s so cool for me to see all those little kids with their parents who attend the parade.” 

Similar to many homecoming week festivities, the parade is a chance for the community, faculty and students to come together. Each organization makes a float for the parade to showcase their school spirit and love for Tarleton. Over 60 floats are in the parade, including Tarleton greek life, the poo and local businesses. 

The purple book gives us insight into many deep-rooted Tarleton traditions, it describes the parade as a celebration for different organizations throughout campus. 

It is evident that students spend a lot of time pouring into their floats to make them the best they can be. 

“The boys were so determined to have the best float this year and in my eyes they did just that. It was so cool getting to see them come together and get so pumped and excited to show all the returning alumni and students at Tarleton their awesome float.” Lane said. 

Ethan Morris is a sophomore at Tarleton and an associate member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.  

“It was really rewarding to see all the organizations on campus come together with their unique floats. My fraternity won third place with our float so in the end it was a big accomplishment,” Morris said. 

The parade allows students to come together to show the alumni and community how much they care about their university. The alumni as far back as the class of 1953 came back to watch the parade. This speaks to Tarleton’s impact on students, and how students and alumni really do bleed purple. 

Cody Mann, a Tarleton Purple Poo alumnus, used the parade as an opportunity to propose to his long time girlfriend, Khloe Morris.

With his ties to the Purple Poo, Mann got together with current members to make traditional Poo signs for the occasion; one saying “Poo Say: will you marry me?” for him to get down on one knee with. 

Khloe was surprised to say the least, but of course said "yes".