A quarter of a century ago, Homecoming was very much as it is today. Students scorched themselves running around the bonfire, cheered until they were hoarse at the football game, and took part in the general chaos that this weekend brings.
One thing, however, was a drastic change: for the first Homecoming ever, women took part in the festivities as Dartmouth students.
Marsha Shaines '74, who went to Dartmouth as a transfer student from Smith, said her first Homecoming was "terrific."
"When [the women] went to the game, we felt like it was really our team," said Shaines, who had been to a previous Homecoming while dating a Dartmouth student.
All of Homecoming weekend was a "festive, fun celebration," according to Judith Yablong '76, who also remembered going to Peter Christian's -- the forebearer of Patrick Henry's Tavern -- after the game. She recollected that "they had the best carrot cake in the state."
The female student body also did their share of partying during Homecoming.
Yablong recalls drinking spiked apple cider because "you could smuggle it into the stadium."
"I had never had alcohol before I came, and by halftime my friends had to carry me home," said Yablong.
Shaines also remembers that the Homecoming parties were "what everybody looked forward to," a sentiment shared by students, male and female, today at the College.
Although they were part of the first female class at Dartmouth, female alumni said that they were shown no exclusion during Homecoming -- in fact, they found most males to be pretty accepting.
"I made a lot of wonderful friends, guys and girls alike," said Yablong. Shaines agreed, saying that there were "no negative feelings" toward her.
Shaines may not have received personal abuse, but there were acts of protest against the co-education of the College.
Yablong remembers the couch that was thrown out of a Woodward Hall window by members of Chi Heorot, when Woodward and North Massachusetts Hall were both all-female dorms.
"I tried not to take the attacks personally," said Yablong, who was dating a senior brother of Heorot at the time. Yablong also said she admired Mary Allen '73 for her activism against discrimination at the College.
Allen said that she did not attend the Homecoming football game, but spent her weekend "on a ten-speed bike," traveling through New Hampshire with her friends. She did, however, participate in the freshman bonfire, which she remembered as being "spectacular."
Yablong said the end result of her first Homecoming was a bringing of everybody together.
"All four classes felt incorporated as well as the other generations of Dartmouth alumni- and for the first time, women were a part of it all," she said.