From 5,000 Fans to GHOE 100

How the Celebration Grew Across Generations

The scale of today's A&T Homecoming would have been difficult to imagine during its earliest years.

By 1936, however, something special was already happening.

A&T's archival history says the university's Homecoming was being praised as outstanding among HBCUs by that period.

Generation after generation added something to the tradition.

Football remained central, but Homecoming increasingly incorporated concerts, parades, coronations, student activities, alumni gatherings and community events.

By 2024, A&T documented approximately 132,000 Homecoming attendees. For the 2026 centennial, university officials have said they expect attendance to surpass 200,000.

Those numbers illustrate extraordinary growth.

But Homecoming isn't simply about crowd size.

Behind those numbers are generations of individual stories: classmates seeing each other again, families maintaining traditions, alumni walking across campus and students experiencing their first Homecoming.

That's how a celebration grows for 100 years.

One generation passes it to the next.

Part of 100 Years of Aggie Stories on GHOEGuide. GHOEGuide.com is an independent, unofficial guide and is not affiliated with North Carolina A&T State University.