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Hundreds of alumni return to campus for multi-day celebration 

You can’t go home again, an old proverb states. Don’t tell that to ����ԭ�� alumni.

Hundreds of Golden Wolf graduates, students and parents converged on the university’s campus over the weekend for a multi-day Homecoming & Family Weekend celebration featuring tailgating, football, family fun, food, ceremonies, live music and reunions. Lots of reunions.

"Everyone said it was the best homecoming they remember," said event organizer Dan Hartzman '06, ����ԭ��'s director of external engagement. "And I think now, two years out of COVID, people being excited for these things makes it fun."

Events began Thursday evening with virtual bingo, allowing out-of-state alumni to participate in the festivities. Friday’s slate included a field hockey game, an Ceremony at the Flynn PLEX, a special seating section at pop country singer Walker Hayes’ show at Santander Arena in downtown Reading, and a Nerdology Pop Culture Trivia Game Show at the Student Center.

A picturesque Saturday served as the weekend’s fulcrum, featuring the lion’s share of the activities, nearly running from sunup to sundown. Tailgating for the noon football game against Wilkes University began at 9 a.m., and the crowd packing Lot C didn’t waste a second, commencing games of cornhole and quoits, and chowing down on food spreads.

“That upper lot was just fantastic,” Hartzman said. “There was great energy. Anecdotally, I can say it’s the second-largest tailgating crowd I’ve ever seen up top, maybe equal to the largest, which was year two of football.”

The sold-out Maroon & Gold Tailgating Package offered homecoming T-shirts, a ticket to the beer garden and pizza from Nonno Alby’s, the West Reading restaurant owned by Massimo Grande ’07.

Philadelphia-based Arthur Thomas and the Funkitorium kept the energy high throughout the morning, its groove-heavy music reverberating across campus until football kicked off at noon.

Though the outcome of the game wasn’t what fans hoped for, the resilient team gave the overflow crowd a thrilling goal-line stand to close the first half. The game was followed by women’s and men’s soccer matches.

Taking in the contest were two former ����ԭ�� athletes back in town for their first Homecoming celebration. Bridget Burger ’10 and Kate McCaffrey ’11 are bridge alumni; they spent the first half of their time at the institution when it was a college and the second half when it was a freshly minted university.

“It’s different and yet the same,” McCaffrey said of her return. “It feels so at home with Veronica Hall still being there. We met there as freshmen. Lived across the hall from one another. It’s still the same dorms, the same setup. We were the Crusaders and now we’re the Wolves. A lot of additions and yet it still feels like home to us.”

McCaffrey, who played soccer and majored in elementary education, teaches at an elementary school in Manayunk, just outside of Philadelphia. Burger, a sport management major who ran cross country, works at the University of Delaware. The duo were impressed with the PLEX and hoped to visit the John R. Post Center at Reading CollegeTowne before the weekend was over.

“We knew everybody when we were here,” Burger said. “Because of the small college feel, we were friends with everybody. We’ve seen a couple of friends today. We haven’t been here in 10 years and picked right back up where we left off.”

Visiting their old residence hall evoked fond memories, as did a return trip to the Physical Education Center, the place where they cheered on fellow athletes and watched the men’s basketball team win the PAC championship in 2007.

“We walked in that gym this morning and it was a memory like no other,” McCaffrey said.

Each of the alumni spoke highly of their professors. Burger credited one with a similar surname for setting her up for success in her professional career.

“Travis Berger (now dean of the College of Business, Communication, and Leadership) was one of my professors and he’s pretty much the reason why I’m in the profession I’m in today in athletics,” Burger said. “He gave me a lot of confidence and made me realize that I could do what I do in the field.”

Those leaving the football game or heading to the soccer game ran across a slew of activities and goodies on the quad, including inflatable slides, a Velcro wall, a mobile obstacle course mimicking “America Ninja Warrior,” cotton candy, speed painting, and an exhibit from Reading Science Center.

The weekend wrapped up Sunday morning with a Mass, a champagne brunch and the You Matter Movement Awareness Walk, supporting an initiative founded by Max Horn ’21 that focuses on mental health awareness.

Since first being celebrated on campus in 1987, Homecoming festivities have steadily grown, aided by an expanding campus and student body, and the introduction of a football team in 2018. COVID let some wind out of the sails for a year at least, but Hartzman said any slowdown was temporary. It’s full steam ahead.

“We’re in a different place now than we were a year ago,” he said. “If we lost momentum, we certainly recaptured it and we’re excited to keep going. We’re already planning bigger, better, including more people for next year.”