By Maddie King
From the parade and football game to the solar eclipse and skydivers, this year’s Stinger Spectacular weekend will be hard to forget for all HPU alumni, students, and friends.
Stinger Spectacular was held on October 13-14 and included a myriad of events packed into two days. The weekend included homecoming, family weekend, and Yellow Jacket Preview bringing alumni, families, and prospective students to the HPU campus.
The festivities began on Friday afternoon with the Golden Graduate Luncheon, where the class of 1973 got to celebrate their 50-year reunion. Events then continued throughout Friday with many reunions, the Alumni Banquet where nine alumni were honored, and Cobbler on the Campus.
Saturday began with 5 different reunions and family breakfasts for many alumni groups and organizations. The “Out of This World” parade began at 10 am, with the HPU Family Picnic following soon after. During the picnic everyone on the HPU campus was treated to special solar eclipse glasses, to view the annular solar eclipse.
Then at 1:40 pm HPU alumni, students, and friends headed out to Gordon Wood Stadium to watch the skydiving demonstration to kick off the football game. The Yellow Jackets then took on the Austin College Kangaroos and came out victorious with a 35-11 final.
“Everything came together really well,” said Dr. Kalie Lowrie, Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations. “It was a great success.”
Lowrie has been planning the weekend for months now and said she is happy with the turnout she had this weekend.
“We had a really large crowd,” said Lowrie. “Probably 1,400 people showed up on Saturday; lots of alumni and families, and a good amount of prospective students.”
Student Madelyn Figueroa, sophomore elementary education major from Fort Worth, said that she has been coming to homecoming for as long as she can remember, but this year was different.
“I think the weekend went amazing; it was a blast!” said Figueroa.
Lowrie said that she doesn’t know how she’s going to top this year’s homecoming celebration. With the solar eclipse and skydivers, this year’s Stinger Spectacular was definitely a special event for everyone that attended.
“The solar eclipse was my favorite. It was a really special experience to share with our HPU family. It was cool getting to walk around and see everyone with their glasses on viewing this once in a lifetime thing. But the skydivers were definitely a close second,” said Lowrie.
The events that occurred this weekend caused the HPU campus to come alive with the amount of people around and the energy that they brought.
Pat Krenek, HPU grad of ‘69 enjoyed his weekend back on campus.
“What an electric weekend! I have not been on the HPU campus in a long time with so much energy and enthusiasm,” said Krenek.
This year’s Stinger Spectacular will be hard to beat, but Lowrie said that they want to keep building on everything they did this year.
Exciting things are in store for next year’s Stinger Spectacular. It will be a weekend you don’t want to miss!
Photo of staff writer Maddie King