In November 1926, more than 850 Queen’s graduates returned to Kingston for what the university called Reunion Week. The program included dances, a visit from the Governor General and a football game. A century later, football is still the centrepiece, and the weekend has grown into one of the largest gatherings on Kingston’s fall calendar. Homecoming 100 runs October 16 to 18. It has about 150 events on the schedule and more than 70 class reunions, for graduates who finished anywhere from 5 to 70 years ago.
Queen’s football will host the Guelph Gryphons at Richardson Stadium on Saturday, October 17, at 1 pm. At 11 am, Queen’s Bands lead the Alumni Parade from Grant Hall along University Avenue and Union Street to West Campus. At halftime, the Tricolour Guard parade honours alumni who graduated 50 or more years ago.
Queen’s is 5-1 and coming off its first loss of the season, last week to Windsor. It won the Yates Cup last fall for the first time since 2009. ’
The stadium is celebrating an anniversary of its own. The first Richardson Stadium opened on Tindall Field in 1921. Its $20 million rebuild on West Campus turned 10 this year, and donors covered more than $17 million of the cost. Programmed use of the field has grown from about 200 hours a year to nearly 1,400. Richardson has hosted back-to-back Vanier Cups (2023, 2024), the 2023 U SPORTS Women’s Soccer Championship, three national youth flag football championships and the Ottawa REDBLACKS’ training camp. That makes it an asset for Kingston every month of the year, not just on Homecoming weekend.
Queen’s hockey roots go back even further than its football history. In 1895, Queen’s became the first team outside the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada to challenge for the Stanley Cup. It challenged again in 1899 and 1906, and it is still the only university team ever to compete for the Cup.
For the centennial, Gaels women’s hockey scheduled its home opener for Homecoming Saturday. The Gaels face the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks at the Kingston Memorial Centre at 4:30 pm, a few hours after the final whistle at Richardson. A limited number of free tickets are available through Homecoming registration, so returning alumni can catch two Gaels games on the same day. Men’s and women’s soccer and men’s rugby also finish their regular seasons over the weekend.
Tourists at their own university
Rachel Castellano, Executive Director of Alumni Strategy, says organizers want alumni to “feel like tourists at their own university again.” The schedule backs that up:
an open-gym session in the High Performance Training Centre with the Gaels’ head strength coach
a tour of the 3,400 -hectare Queen’s University Biological Station
a conversation with General (Ret’d) Wayne Eyre, former Chief of the Defence Staff
screenings at Douglas Library of a film made for the first Homecoming in 1926
Engineering alumni get a second centennial too: an Iron Ring sculpture dedication marking 100 years of The Calling of an Engineer.
Beyond the stadium
Homecoming brings people from well beyond Ontario. The 2017 edition drew more than 3,600 registered alumni, some from as far away as Australia, Spain and Mexico. One engineering class from 1972 brought 55 classmates. Over three days they spread out across the city, from downtown restaurants and the waterfront to the local artisans at Saturday’s Fall Harvest gathering.
The longer-lasting value is the venue. The alumni who showed up for Homecoming, and paid for most of the stadium’s rebuild, gave Kingston a facility that now hosts national championships. Richardson’s back-to-back Vanier Cups and the 2023 U SPORTS Women’s Soccer Championship brought teams, officials and fans to Kingston from across the country. Homecoming helped build that facility, and it keeps the alumni behind it connected to Kingston.
A century in, the formula hasn’t changed: a football game, a full stadium and a city ready to welcome its alumni home. Here’s to the next hundred. See the full schedule online.
