Students, faculty, alumni and family flocked the Boulevard and Hillcrest Avenue Saturday morning to watch the annual Homecoming parade.

Over the course of the past week, Homecoming participants put in long hours working on their city themed floats that debuted in the parade.

From 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., judges evaluated each float and chose the winners.

Third place went to Kappa Kappa Gamma and Sigma Alpha Epsilon with their New York themed float.

Second place was a tie between two cities in Italy: Kappa Alpha Theta and Pi Kappa Alpha placed with a float based on the historical city of Rome, while Chi Omega and Sigma Phi Epsilon placed with their float constructed around the city of love in Italy, Venice.

First place went to Alpha Chi Omega and Beta Theta Pi with a float based on city close to home, San Antonio.

The parade began at 11 a.m. on Hillcrest Avenue, then headed toward campus and made its way through the Boulevard.

The parade featured Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings as the Parade Marshal and WFAA news anchor Shelly Slater as the emcee. Boy Scouts led the line, holding a variety of flags from a SMU Unbridled flag to a Texas State flag. SMU Peruna handlers followed with the new Peruna IX.

In addition to the student-built floats, the Second Celebration Organization Committee and SMU Unbridled 100 also had floats in honor of SMU’s Centennial.

The parade also featured a wide variety of performances from local high school bands to alumni tap dancers. A special appearance was even made by President R. Gerald Turner.

Students, alumni, family and friends cheered on throughout the parade.

“I loved seeing all the creative floats and how they were decorated, especially the extra effort students put in to them,” first year Alexa Malevitis said.

Then people moved from the Boulevard to Gerald J. Ford Stadium to watch the game against Tulane.

During halftime, Homecoming Queen and King were crowned.

There were four elements that determined the winner of this year’s Homecoming King and Queen, each counting for 25 percent.

Candidates were judged based on an interview, team placement, voting and his or her resume and GPA.

Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Grace Roberts was crowned Homecoming Queen.

First runner up went to Chi Omega’s Laura Schur and second runner up went to Pi Beta Phi’s Jacqueline Rivas.

Beta Theta Pi’s Seth Ramey was named Homecoming King this year, followed by Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s Billy Dugal as first runner up and Sigma Phi Epsilon’s Ricky Townsend as second runner up.

“Homecoming is such a wonderful tradition,” Student Foundation Homecoming Chair Katie Broderick said. “I love how it encourages school spirit while still fostering some healthy competition between organizations. It’s just amazing to see what students are able to do to encourage SMU pride.”

The winner of the Overall Sprit Competition, which is determined by the points earned during Peruna painting, banner contest, field day, window painting, rock the vote, blood drive and the float competition, was announced at halftime as well.

This year Alpha Chi Omega and Beta Theta Pi took home the win.

The SMU Mustangs went on to sweep away Tulane University with a Homecoming game win of 45-24, making them bowl eligible for the third year in a row.

“All of the organizations were great to work with and the candidates were so enthusiastic,” Broderick said.”It was great seeing their pride in their organization and SMU as a whole. They all made my job incredibly easy as well as an unforgettable experience.”

Video shot and edited by Sidney Giesey, [email protected]