Ouachita Stories

Homecoming week at Ouachita Baptist University begins Monday, Oct. 18, and will continue through Saturday, Oct. 23, offering an opportunity for alumni, current students and potential students to participate in events with the theme “Totally Tigers.”

Activities will include the popular Ouachita traditions of Tiger Tunes, GROW (Getting Ready for Ouachita’s World) and various other campus-wide activities welcoming “former students and friends back to campus while honoring traditions and milestones among the on-campus community,” said Lauren Land, Ouachita’s internal alumni director.

Students can begin celebrating on Monday with Lunch on the Lawn, hosted by Student Senate, while being introduced to the 2010 Homecoming court nominees. Ouachita’s Office of Development will also host FORE Ouachita, a golf tournament benefiting Ouachita athletics, on Monday. The tournament will be held at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Little Rock, Ark., and is open to all alumni and area businesses.

The men of Eta Alpha Omega will host events throughout the week as part of their Break Week. Monday they will serve root beer floats, Wednesday they will serve chili dogs and Friday they will serve Frito chili pie. All of these events will be held in Grant Plaza at 12 noon. On Saturday, after the final Tiger Tunes performance, they will host their annual Muggin’ event, also in Grant Plaza.

Tuesday’s activities include a car decorating contest where students are invited to decorate their cars in the spirit of Homecoming, hosted by the women of EEE in the SPEC parking lot from 2:30 to 5 p.m., and a dinner for alumni and their families who live in Clark County, hosted by Ouachita’s Alumni Office.

Wednesday, the women of Tri Chi will host a football poster making party at 12 noon in the amphitheatre. Later that night after dress rehearsal for Tiger Tunes, Student Senate will host a Tunes after party in the Ouachita Commons, where Tunes participants and all other students are invited to attend for food and fun.

GROW begins Thursday, inviting high school juniors and seniors who are interested in Ouachita to experience the OBU world and all it has to offer. Students may check in beginning at 5:30 p.m. at which time they will receive instructions and a complimentary Tiger Tunes ticket for that evening’s show.

Tiger Tunes, “the tone for Homecoming every year and major draw for alumni,” Land said, begins its 32^nd show Thursday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. and continues Friday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 23, at 5 and 8:30 p.m. Tickets for all shows are currently sold out, but a waiting list for tickets to be made available is accessible at www.obutigertunes.com. All shows, hosted by the Ouachita Student Foundation (OSF), will be held in the Jones Performing Arts Center and will benefit student scholarships.

Refuge, a student-led worship service hosted by Campus Ministries at First Baptist Church, will immediately follow Thursday’s Tiger Tunes show.

Continuing the celebrations on Friday, Oct. 22, four distinguished members of Ouachita’s alumni community will take part in a panel discussion at 11 a.m. in Jones Performing Arts Center as part of the 2010 Ouachita Alumni Milestone Awards. Ouachita’s Tigersharks swimming and diving team will take on Henderson State University in the Battle of the Ravine Swim Meet at 6:30 p.m. at HSU’s Duke Wells Pool. Members of the Kappa Chi social club will also be hosting a cookout open to all students after the 7:30 Tiger Tunes show in the Speer Pavilion behind Evans Student Center.

A full day of Homecoming activities is planned for Saturday, Oct. 23. Before the afternoon football game, Campus Ministries will host a Freshman Family Group breakfast in the Commons at 9 a.m., and the 3^rd annual OcTiger Fest will follow, beginning at 10 a.m.

Hosted by Ouachita’s Alumni Office, OcTiger Fest will feature various social clubs, athletic groups, academic departments and campus organizations to greet students and alumni. The US Bank CubZone is geared especially toward children and will be supervised by Ouachita student volunteers, coordinated by Ouachita’s Campus Activity Board. Student Senate will again sponsor a live tiger from Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.

“While students look forward to the inflatables, snacks and games and the live tiger, our professors’ participation in OcTiger Fest is something our alumni really look forward to,” Land said. “In addition to reconnecting with a club they were part of during school, they can also spend time catching up with the faculty members who made their college experience so meaningful.”

OcTiger Fest will continue until 12:30 p.m. and will be located in the center of campus. A reunion luncheon will also be held in the Walker Conference Center for the classes of 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000, hosted by Ouachita’s Alumni Office.

Ouachita soccer, tennis and spirit squad alumni are invited to attend special reunion events for their respective sports on Saturday morning, including scrimmages and matches with current players.

The Homecoming football game against North Alabama will be preceded by the introduction of the Homecoming queen and her court at 12:30 p.m., followed by kickoff at 1 p.m. at A.U. Williams Field.

Following the game and the first showing of Tiger Tunes at 5 p.m., the community is invited to attend the first annual Mega-Mix Fajita Grill, hosted by Sodexo, from 6-8:30 p.m. The Grill will be held outside the Jones Performing Arts Center and will “allow students to enjoy the grill among alumni and other Tunes attendees,” Land said.

Alumni from the 1980s are invited to attend the Totally Gnarly 80’s After-party in the Walker Conference Center after the football game.

Following the success of the previous years, the online Signal will present a live simulcast of the 8:30 p.m. finale of Tiger Tunes. The simulcast will include behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and production team in addition to the show itself. News stories from Homecoming week will also be presented during the intermissions of the show. The live webcast can be viewed at www.obusignal.com along with links to previous shows and interviews.

For more information about the week’s activities, including registration and ticketing, visit www.obualumni.org or contact Lauren Land at [email protected] or (870) 245-5111.

By Breanne Goodrum