Crowds of students and alumni filled Hanover's streets and the Green Friday for the College's 100th Dartmouth Night celebration, the traditional beginning of the College's homecoming weekend.
Francis Howland '57 called Dartmouth Night "a return to the source."
"I do it for me," Howland said. "I've had my disagreements with the school," he said, but after his 25th reunion he said realized the importance of the College to his life.
The evening started with a parade featuring students and alumni whose Dartmouth careers span three-quarters of a century.
A few members of the Class of 1926 marched proudly near the front of the parade, while the Class of 1999 energetically charged by at the end in the traditional freshman sweep.
Students, alums and Hanover residents lined the streets to witness the event, but the crowd was generally subdued throughout the long march.
The parade also featured College President James Freedman, Alumni Association head Otho Kerr '79, the coaches and captains of the football and field hockey teams and Brooks Clark '78, a great-grandson of President William Jewitt Tucker.
Tucker created the first Dartmouth Night in 1895 to welcome the freshman class to the College.
The Dartmouth College Marching Band and several local high school bands provided music for the parade.
After the parade of people ended their march in front of Dartmouth Hall, thousands of students and alumni gathered to listen as several speakers praised the College's on-going traditions and school spirit.
Clark recalled that his great-grandfather said spirit "gives public value to an academic institution" and praised Tucker's generation as the first to face the realities of the "modern world."
Freedman called Dartmouth Night "a celebration of the Dartmouth spirit among the generations of men and women" who attended the College and he said the event was "an occasion to renew our common devotion to this wonderful college."
He also spoke to the crowd of the challenge "to maintain and strengthen the Dartmouth to which you have given so much already."
Many of the night's speakers focused on the College's sports teams that many alumni returned to see play on homecoming weekend.
Bob Blackman, the head coach of the football team from 1954 to 1970, spoke about the College's 1970 team, which won the Ivy League championship with an undefeated season. He said the team built very strong bonds that last even today.
John Lyons, the current head coach of the football team, said this year's team would "paste" Colgate and that the team is "on a roll" after its convincing victory over Yale the previous weekend.
Lyons was followed by team co-Captains Pete Oberle '96 and Taran Lent '96, who praised Dartmouth's pride and tradition and said the current squad has defied the odds given to them by many sportswriters this season.
Kerr, who spoke earlier in the evening, praised the enormous success of Dartmouth's women's sports teams, noting the field hockey, soccer, basketball, ice hockey and lacrosse teams recent successes.
Field Hockey Coach Julie Dayton praised the "strong tradition of Dartmouth pride" and thanked the crowd for their support of the team this year.
Field Hockey co-Captains Lauren Demski '96 and Cynthia Roberts '96 also spoke briefly.
The event concluded as the bonfire, built by Class of '99, was ignited by torches. Thousands of spectators stayed to bask in the heat of the blaze and watch the freshmen run around the flaming structure.
