Houston HBCU homecoming brings generations back together

When Dr. Antrece Baggett marched with Texas Southern University’s Ocean of Soul band in the 1980s, homecoming came down to one weekend.

“It was still a lot of fun, but we really got into it Friday and Saturday,” said Baggett, who graduated from TSU in 1992. “We did a few things on campus throughout, but the really big celebration was always that weekend.”

Alumni returned to the campus that shaped them, and the School of Pharmacy and the law school held their own festivities. For students, the campus bookstore and cafeteria were the main places to shop and eat.

Money was tight. Baggett stepped away from school to marry and later returned as a divorced single parent to finish her degree. She skipped the galas, but she dressed her young daughter in TSU colors, took her to the game, and made the most of what she had.

So when she returned to campus last year, the size of the celebration stopped her.

“It took my breath away,” Baggett said. “It was like the entire block was dedicated to homecoming.”

As Prairie View A&M University and TSU prepare for homecoming this month, alumni say the celebration looks far different from it did a generation ago. Vendors line the yard, and students film nearly every moment. Whether that shift is progress or loss depends on whom you ask.

PVAMU will mark its 150th anniversary during homecoming week, Oct. 11-17, ending with a game against Alcorn State at Panther Stadium. TSU’s 99th homecoming runs Oct. 18-24 and closes with a matchup against Southern University at Reliant Stadium.

In Baggett’s student days, the campus bookstore and cafeteria were the main places to shop and eat during homecoming. Cameras meant that phones were hardly part of the scene.

Last year, tents and vendors selling food, desserts, and TSU gear filled the grounds near the library and the College of Education.

“It’s almost like a carnival,” Baggett said. “We did not have that during the ’80s and early ’90s.”

Many of the people celebrating were neither students nor alumni but neighbors from Third Ward, Fifth Ward, and beyond.

“It looked like the city,” she said. “It looked like Black Houston was embracing Texas Southern.”

As a student and later a single parent, Baggett could not afford the galas. Now she plans to spend more and recently rejoined the alumni association for the third time.

“We’re just glad to see that the fruits of our labor are continuing to grow through the students that we see today,” Baggett said. “We’re hoping that they love homecoming as much as we do.”

Lorie M. Proctor sees homecoming through two lenses. A 2004 PVAMU graduate who reigned as Miss Prairie View, she now serves as director of the Annual Fund in the university’s Office of Development.

As a freshman, Proctor wondered about the alumni in gold jackets, members of the Golden Class marking 50 years since graduation. This year’s honorees, the Class of 1976, will wear the jackets during the parade.

“It became something to look forward to,” Proctor said. “Fifty years after I graduated from Prairie View, I, too, get to wear this gold jacket.”

She also recalls the dust of the tailgate and strangers feeding students as if they were family. Today, her work includes the Homecoming Giving Challenge, in which PVAMU’s nine colleges and schools compete for alumni donations.

Proctor said the university sees the growing off-campus scene as an opportunity, not competition, as long as events are safe.

“Prairie View doesn’t just belong to us,” she said. “It belongs to the community at large.”

To draw alumni back to campus, PVAMU is leaning on its sesquicentennial, departmental events, and a football team that won the 2025 SWAC title and reached its first Celebration Bowl.

“We’re just glad to see that the fruits of our labor are continuing to grow through the students that we see today. We’re hoping that they love homecoming as much as we do.”

Antrece Baggett, TSU Alumn Class of 1992

Social media has also changed how the weekend is shared.

“Everybody’s an ambassador, everybody’s a content creator,” Proctor said. “It’s exposed what we thought was only ours to the world.”

Some of her best memories, like crowding onto Blackshear Stadium’s lone set of bleachers, were never photographed.

“We made the fun,” Proctor said. “We didn’t necessarily wait for the popular rap artist to come on campus to make homecoming what it was.”

Niles Dillard remembers that same do-it-yourself spirit. Prairie View runs deep in his family. His mother, sister, and brother are also graduates, and he spent his first two homecomings on the football field before finishing in 1995.

“Back then, we just kind of depended on each other to have fun,” Dillard said. “The parties were outside.”

Those tent parties were dusty and country, he said, and students hauled supplies from Houston because there were few stores near campus. Today, alumni roll in on RVs and camp from Wednesday to Sunday, and latecomers can sit on U.S. 290 for hours.

“It’s just a more upscale feel because you have access to more stuff,” Dillard said. “But the PV love that we share with one another is the same.”

He misses the on-campus parties, but he said every generation still finds its place.

“The older people have their part, the younger people get their part,” Dillard said. “And so everybody finds their way.”

Darien Grace, who graduated from TSU in May 2026, attended all four homecomings while enrolled. Grace said the week drew Third Ward neighbors and visitors from other HBCUs to campus.

The biggest change came in 2025, when TSU ended homecoming activities at 7 p.m., citing safety concerns and rising gun violence at other historically Black colleges and universities. 

Students disliked the curfew, and many became more careful about their behavior. 

“We understood why decisions like that had to be made for our safety,” Grace said. “But from a student’s perspective, it felt like a grown-up telling a child what to do. We are adults in college, so the curfew thing threw things off. This is a moment of joy for us, especially during crazy times like this.”