Despite the many long-standing traditions of Dartmouth Homecoming, the weekend was a very different one when John Engelman '68 was a student. In those days, the football team was winning, a bonfire was constructed before every home game and Homecoming weekend went by the name of House Parties, he said. Women traditionally made the trip to campus for the weekend as Dartmouth was all-male at the time.
"For House Parties, the men on campus, whether they were affiliated with a fraternity or not, would bring their girlfriends or dates in from women's colleges, from hometowns, from wherever they happened to have a relationship," Engelman said.
Buses typically brought women from women's colleges such as Vassar, Smith and Wellesley.
While Homecoming was not traditionally as popular a date weekend as the other big weekends, many men still bused in dates from other schools, according to College archivist Peter Carini. Approximately 65 to 75 percent of men brought dates to campus, Engelman estimated.
Football programs from the 1930s advertise dinner dances taking place after the House Parties game, and several ads in the Oct.15, 1930 edition of the Jack-O-Lantern advertise beauty services for women.
"Girls, look your best at House Parties. Don't disappoint your man," one ad for Doris' Beauty Box in Hanover reads.
In the days when women were not allowed in dormitories, men had to make other living accommodations for the weekend if they wanted to bring dates.
"There were pretty strict rules about housing women in dorms and fraternities," Engelman said.
During big weekends, the College did not allow the men to return to their rooms until the women had left the campus.
"It was very primitive, very strict about men and women hooking up and getting together," Engelman said. "It happened, but it didn't happen very easily. As many hoops as it took to get dates up here, I think they would tell you that it was well worth the effort."
Even though male students continued to strongly outnumber female students after women were first admitted to the College in 1972, it was often difficult for women on campus to find dates, according to Robin Travers '77.
"It was not at all unusual for Dartmouth women to be without dates on big weekends," Travers said. "The men assumed that because there were at least five others in line that all the girls had dates. It was a very awkward environment."
The beginning of coeducation was a time of tension, and some of those tensions inevitably spilled over into Homecoming, Travers said. She added that despite some "tough" moments between male and female students, she still loved Homecoming and her overall Dartmouth experience.
Controversy erupted during the 1986 and 1987 Homecoming celebrations when two separate groups of women dressed in witch costumes interrupted Dartmouth Night ceremonies, throwing simulated bloody tampons in 1986 and dyed eggs to represent ova the following year. The groups called themselves "Womyn to Overthrow Dartmouth" and "Wimmin's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell."
"The blood, the eggs here before you are part of an undying cycle, as is the struggle against oppression ... A witch is a woman who has freed herself from the bonds of heterocentrism, and from the bonds of profit-seeking education," the Wimmin's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell said in a public statement released to the Dartmouth community in 1987.
Despite mistreatment in the early years of coeducation, female alumnae still express affection for Homecoming weekend.
"I remember it as a very positive experience," Nancy Vespoli '77 said. "There was a lot of excitement about the football game, the football team."
Travers agreed, adding that despite the challenges, Homecoming weekend each year was a time of enjoyment.
"There are women who get a little down on how tough it was," Travers said. "I'm not one of those women. I knew I was choosing something that was a little different. I did it with a sense of adventure and enthusiasm, and it wasn't always easy, but I had a ball, and I loved Dartmouth then and I love it today."
