This year’s Homecoming theme is “Buckeyes Through the Decades” and student organizations who were putting the finishing touches on their Homecoming Parade floats last night decorated accordingly.
Christopher Blunk, a fifth-year senior in civil engineering, is helping build the float for Kappa Delta, Delta Tau Delta and Beta Theta Pi. Their float shows Ohio State athletes who have had major accomplishments over the past decades. Members of the organizations will dress like these celebrated athletes. A fraternity member came up with the idea about a month ago and they have been working since then to prepare for today’s parade.
Alpha Psi Lambda Fraternity, Inc., Alpha Chapter will illustrate the evolution of Brutus the Buckeye. Brutus’ head is shown as a totem pole with his earliest year at the top and growing older towards the bottom.
“We wanted to put a Latin spice to our float,” said Sandra Carrillo, a sophomore in political science and criminology, referring to the totem pole.
The SPHINX Senior Honorary has used a pyramid, an icon for the organization, with famous past SPHINX members on each of the sides. Jesse Owens, Archie Griffin and Jim Tressel all grace the pyramid.
Organizations were able to work on their floats in the south end of Ohio Stadium Wednesday and Thursday nights. The south end of Ohio Stadium provided room for student organizations to work on their floats Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Not every organization that will have a float in the parade took advantage of the free space and supplies, which were supplied by the Office of Student Affairs to the first 20 organizations who registered to build a float.
“There’s a lower turnout than last year,” Blunk said. “But the quality of the floats are better this year.”
He also said that he thinks using the Stadium as a space to build the floats makes the organizations feel closer to the school. He said he was glad to see the space being used for something other than games.
Joel Sedziol and John Tepper, employees of Student Affairs, are working as the carpenters using saws and other tools to avoid any student injuries. Organizations could sign out smaller tools to take to their building site.
Tepper said students know what they want to build, but do not always know how to build it.
“They do have good ideas and plans,” Tepper said.
Sedziol and Tepper said the wildest idea an organization brought to them was to build a Brutus as a cone-bra Madonna.
“I didn’t think they would be able to do it but it looks just like her,” Sedziol said.
The parade will start at 6 p.m. today at the Stadium. The parade will run east on Woody Hayes to High Street, south on High Street to 12th Avenue and east on 12th Avenue to the South Oval where the Pep Rally will take start at 7:30 p.m.
