KALAMAZOO, MI -- Bronco alums came to town for Western Michigan University’s Homecoming game Saturday.
The Broncos were beaten by the Ohio University Bobcats 33-14 on Oct. 15, but hopes were still high at halftime for current WMU master’s student Jacobi Wright, who received his bachelor’s degree this summer.
“We have some Homecoming spirit so hopefully that translates to some good luck for us,” Wright said.
Related: See 53 game, tailgate, marching band photos from Western Michigan’s Homecoming game against Ohio
Some alums were grateful to come together after COVID-19 had disrupted large gatherings for two years. Tinalise DiLullo, Julie Dueweke and Andrea Stall, who graduated in 2006 and 2010, attended the game with their families for the first time since the pandemic began.
“We’re ready to be a community again,” Dueweke said. “You feel at home but it’s also, you’re still cultivating relationships that have lasted several years and every time we come I fell like there are always people that are part of the circle in some respect.”
DiLullo echoed the sentiment.
“It’s like we never left. We all get together and we have that same fun personality that we had many many years ago,” DiLullo said.
Related: Offense’s ‘complete disaster’ of a 2nd half dooms WMU football in loss to Ohio
Many of the parking lots on East Campus were filled to the brim with students and alumni sharing drinks, stories and playing corn hole with WMU themed boards. Stall said the atmosphere has changed as they’ve grown older.
“I would say it’s calming because I feel like the age that we are it’s not like, ‘Let’s get drunk.’ it’s the calming aspect of friendship,” Stall said.
Curt and Laurie Connell were packing up their set up to head down to the field when they shared how they met at WMU in 1988.
“I got out of sync and I waved to him and he helped me out and later he asked me out,” Laurie Connell said.
The Connells have season tickets and have made the drive from Grand Haven to every game this year.
“Through the good, through the bad we follow our Broncos,” Laurie Connell said.
Curt Connell sees WMU as one of Michigan’s major universities and wishes people recognized it as much as Michigan State and the University of Michigan.
“It’s important for me for other people to realize there’s more than two schools, more than two universities in the state of Michigan,” Curt Connell said.
Curt Connell said he’s glad with the education he got at WMU and is excited to continue supporting the university.
“Western’s amazing, it’s more affordable, it’s more down to earth, it’s more in touch with what you want to get out of a school, out of education,” Curt Connell said. “It’s been phenomenal it’s given me a fantastic life.”
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