Light blue and purple background with an illustration of a rodeo horse and rider on the top with purple text and light blue text on the bottom.

The annual homecoming football game and dance is one of the traditions of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. The first homecoming dance was held in 1918, almost 30 years after its founding in 1885, and featured a parade, lunch, and a baseball game. The selling of promotional buttons was done every year to encourage the student body's participation in the festivities, and in 1940 they sold for ten cents apiece. Today the homecoming is celebrated with a bonfire, dance, and a football game against the rival St. John’s University.

Engebretson, Kelly. (2013, October 2). Tommie Traditions: Homecoming. Retrieved from: http://www.stthomas.edu/news/tommie-traditions-homecoming/.

Illustration of a lion on a white background with blue text

This button is likely from the 1971 St. Viator High School Homecoming. St. Viator is located in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The school mascot is a lion, with navy and white as the school colors.

Illustration has yellow text on a blue background in a circle near the edge of the button, which also shows stars and planets. The text reads Turtle Derby 1966. Centered is a multicolored image of a turtle in a space helmet, superimposed over a blue and white image of a planet. The turtle is holding a pennant that reads JHH.

The "JHH" on the pennant illustrated on this button stands for Johns Hopkins Hospital, host of the Turtle Derby since 1931. The annual event began as a race between the pet turtles of Benjamin Frisby, a caretaker at Johns Hopkins. It is hosted by first-year medical and radiography students. Turtles are rented from local turtle farms and returned after the race, with money wagered on the turtles benefiting charity. Johns Hopkins Hospital was established in Baltimore, Md. in 1889, 13 years after the University's founding.

Illustration of a red sun with yellow text on it on a white background

This button is likely from the Indiana University (IU) Homecoming in 1994. That year, IU Homecoming took place October 21-22 and culminated with a football game against Northwestern University.

Illustration of a horses head in the middle of a circle with blue text and a decorative outer blue edge

Pimlico Junior High School was located in Baltimore, Maryland. It opened in the fall of 1956. The school was closed in 2008 due to low enrollment and outdated facilities. It is likely that the school colors were grey and blue and the mascot was a gray mare.

Illustration of a bow and arrow on a yellow background with green text and an outer green edge with yellow text

Like many high schools, Lane Tech’s homecoming is held in the fall during “harvest” time. Traditionally a time when alumni return to their schools to watch the homecoming game or catch up with friends, Lane Tech dubbed their 1984 homecoming the “harvest of champions”. This name was a nod to the hundreds of athletic championships that Lane Tech had won throughout the decades and perhaps also a hope that they would be champions again in 1984. 

Lane Technical College Prep High School located in Chicago, Illinois, was founded in 1908. Lane Tech is one of nine selective enrollment schools, requiring all applicants to pass entrance exams before attending the school. The campus has an enrollment of just over 4,000 students, grades 7-12. Lane Tech's colors are green and gold, and their mascot is the Indians (which has been much debated in recent years, but still remains unchanged).

Illustration of a brown and white gopher with black hair on its head and wearing a black skirt with black text on a yellow background

The University of Minnesota chose ‘Gopher’s A-Go-Go’ for their 1965 Homecoming theme.  The phrase, and variations on it, was used on floats, pins, signage and other promotional materials for various Homecoming festivities. The term ‘a-go-go’ is borrowed from the French and has various appropriate meanings: a nightclub for dancing to popular music, being in a whirl of motion, and being up-to-date. In their 12th year under head coach Murray Warmath, the 1965 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers won their Homecoming game 14-13 against the Michigan Wolverines with an attendance of 58,519.

Illustration of a tall birthday cake with blue text and blue candles on a white background

This button was likely given to a student to wear on his/her birthday by Fernway Park Elementary School. Fernway Park is located in Orland Park, Illinois and serves kindergarten through fifth grade students.

A white button with red text written on the top, right-center, left-center, and the bottom. In the center of the button lies a black and white image of a man with glasses and a suit. 

Dr. Carle B. McKaig was a physician serving the Pine Island, MN region for over 50 years. Born circa 1884 (exact year is debated) in Indiana, Dr. McKaig received his M.D. degree in 1906 at Sioux City College of Medicine in Sioux City, Iowa and relocated to Minnesota the following year to establish his practice. Called 'the ideal general practitioner' by Dr. Charles Mayo, of the Mayo Clinic, Dr. McKaig was the last of a generation, making house calls fist by horse, then by motorcycle and finally by car. Dr. McKaig owned the first automobile in Pine Island. An indomitable spirit, he did not let the loss of his leg in an accident slow him down, nor the death of his wife Catherine in 1937, after 21 years of marriage. He was known not only for his extraordinary diagnostic abilities but also for his research on parotitis, or the inflammation of the parotoid salivary glands, which is most commonly found when a patient has the Mumps.

Red background with white text

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