This year marks the 65th anniversary of a cherished Sidwell Friends tradition.

It all began at an Alumni Association board meeting 65 years ago. Mike Gottscho ’49, who was a guard on the Sidwell Friends football team for three years, suggested bringing alumni back to campus for a “Home-coming” football game followed by a cocktail party at his house. On October 21, 1960, Sidwell Friends’ first Homecoming was held. While the team lost to the Landon School 28-8, the seed was planted. “We hope,” observed the Alumni Bulletin, “this will become an annual event.” 

A Homecoming celebration did in fact continue each fall, with the 1964 game being an especially memorable one. With 10 seconds left, Landon was again poised for victory with a 13-7 lead when Steve Page ’65 scored a touchdown, and Pete Donovan ’66 kicked an extra point that led to a nail-biting 14-13 victory. In the 1967 Homecoming game against St. Albans, one more last-second touchdown yielded another exciting win, 24-20. 

Homecoming grew to include the youngest in the community in 1973 when the School marked its 90th anniversary with a special Family Day co-sponsored by the Parents and Alumni Associations. Apple-bobbing, peanut races, strolling musicians, and a picnic brought both current and former families together for a fun-filled fall day. 

In 1976, the precursors to one of Homecoming’s most enduring traditions began when a garage sale was added to the festivities. Beginning in the 1990s, items leftover from the spring auction were sold in the “Outlet Auction Shoppe,” and by 2001 the Next-to- New Sale was born. Through the heroic work of hundreds of dedicated volunteers for 25 years, each Homecoming Weekend the Wannan Gym was filled with gently used clothing, books, jewelry, toys, bikes, furniture, and other items donated by the Sidwell Friends community. Net proceeds benefited student financial aid. In 2019, the beloved event’s final year, the sale grossed a whopping $121,500. (The Zartman House receptionist still receives calls at least once a week about whether the sale is back.) 

For students, Homecoming is the culmination of Spirit Week. Many students remember the mix of pride and disgust while watching their friends compete in the pie-eating contest (see the back cover for more!), or whether Red or Gray won tug-of-war (except the year the rope broke!). Other traditions have been unsurprisingly short-lived, such as Jell-O wrestling and the Dunk Tank. One year, the varsity football team competed against the varsity field hockey team in an It’s Academic–style competition. Another time, a students-versus-faculty wheelbarrow race drew the crowds. To this day, the Homecoming Dance in the Upper School dining room still caps off the week. 

With students, alumni, faculty, and parents together on campus, Homecoming Weekend has also been a traditional time to commemorate important milestones for the School community. At the 1980 Homecoming, the cornerstone for the new Wannan Gymnasium was laid, with Beatrice Bulla, Class of 1905, sharing her memories of Thomas Sidwell from when she first enrolled in 1899. Two years later, the Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod Arts Center was dedicated. And then 20 years ago, the Class of 2004 returned to campus to dedicate the scoreboard they raised funds to erect in honor of their classmate, Tyler Rusch, who died shortly before his senior year began. 

When Homecoming first began in 1960, no one knew it was going to be one of the last years that the whole school would be together on one campus. It is fitting, then, that the milestone our community celebrates this year with the groundbreaking of the new Upper School building marks the first major step toward bringing the entire school back together again on Wisconsin Avenue.