Bemidji State University - Homecoming Tradition

Homecoming Tradition

If one were to tell a Bemidji football player to "go jump in a lake", they just might do it -- if the team had just won their Homecoming game. In a tradition dating back to the mid-1990s, anytime the team wins Homecoming, the players run from the football stadium to nearby Lake Bemidji and dive in. The tradition dates to 1995 when Bemidji State upset the defending conference champion Winona State University in the Homecoming game and took their first "victory dip" in the lake. The roots of the tradition date back two years earlier however when, in 1993, an assistant coach attempted to inspire the winless team. He wrote a fictional news story of the upcoming Homecoming game. In his account, the team earned an upset Homecoming victory and dived into Lake Bemidji in celebration. A real-world victory didn't happen in 1993, nor 1994, but when Homecoming victory came in 1995 it was time to get wet. Between 1995 and 2012 the Beavers have won twelve of the seventeen Homecming games.