Hobo Day - Origin of Hobo Day

Origin of Hobo Day

The origin of Hobo Day can be traced back to 1907. A sequence of events occurred that spurred the homecoming celebration that is celebrated today.

Commonly mistaken for as Hobo Days. This is inaccurate, it is Hobo Week and Hobo Day.

In the fall of 1907, SDSU (then South Dakota State College) played Dakota Wesleyan at home in Brookings, South Dakota. The students, hungry for a win, participated in a "Nightshirt Parade" to stir up enthusiasm for the upcoming game. The men dressed in their nightshirts and women dressed in sheets. The students continued the tradition every homecoming day until in 1911, when the college administration deemed it undignified and un-ladylike for women to dress up in sheets and wander the streets. As a result, the homecoming tradition was ended and a new one needed to form.

A student by the name of Adam Ducher brought up a concept he had seen attempted at the University of Missouri that had students dress up as hobos and bums that was ultimately dropped from their homecoming celebrations for various reasons. Without a real event to partake in during homecoming, the concept took wing with much enthusiasm from the student body.

The first Hobo Day occurred November 2, 1912. The men were to grow beards for approximately one month and the women were to dress as Indian maidens on Hobo Day. After all the preparation was complete, the entire student body participating in Hobo Day journeyed to the train station to meet the opposing football team. According to the student newspaper, "The onlooker could not have told whether he was in an 1849 Indian village or a Twentieth Century division point on the Northwestern railroad." The new homecoming celebration was a huge success and is still currently in place.