Alumni return to WCU for annual homecoming celebration
From left to right, Brad Bradshaw, Heather and Peyton Smith, Stacey Miller, director of alumni engagement, Chancellor Kelli R. Brown, Jamie Van Pelt and Mike Crawford
By Cam Adams
Jamie Van Pelt’s drive from Florida to Western Carolina University isn’t the most riveting one. It’s several hours of rural highways, twists and turns and infamous Atlanta traffic, but when Van Pelt crests the hill south of Clayton, Georgia, he smiles.
The memories from those mountains in the distance come flooding back and a sense of warmth washes over the two-time WCU alumnus. That feeling is distinct from any other.
He’s home.
Jamie Van Pelt at the 2024 Homecoming parade
“It’s a sense of community that really makes you feel like you’re home, and every time I’m on campus, I feel like I’m welcomed here,” Van Pelt said. “It’s been such a huge part of my life and my family’s life since I left that every time I leave, I just want to get back sooner than later.”
Van Pelt was one of several hundred alumni to return to campus last week for WCU’s annual Celebrate Western Homecoming week. The occasion featured a thrilling carnival, a rambunctious parade and, of course, an impressive win for the Catamount football team.
However, while those events make for a memorable week, the real delight, for many alumni, comes with reconnecting with the folks who made WCU home.
That includes former Catamounts like Willie Carpenter, a WCU Athletics hall of famer, who’s made the trip to homecoming in Cullowhee about every year since he graduated in 1980. The thing that draws him back in each year?
Willie Carpenter
“Just driving up here this time of year with the change of the leaves and the change of the seasons and all the old memories that come back, and also, with the change of campus,” Carpenter said.
It also includes folks who haven’t had much of a chance to return to their college town like Todd Jackson.
The 1987 WCU grad, who was a long snapper on the Catamounts’ 1983 football team that reached the NCAA Division I-AA national title game, hadn’t been to a homecoming since 1986 — the last year he played in the game.
In between now and then, Jackson’s life has been busy with his kids, coaching and only about three WCU football games. But his Saturday was filled with friends he hadn’t seen in 30 years and a university that’s bloomed since he last donned the purple and gold.
“It’s grown a lot. It still looks like it’s still a college town, though. That’s what’s so unique about it. Just the college has gotten bigger, but the town ain’t got any bigger,” Jackson said. “I think it’s great.”
Along with its homecoming festivities, WCU also honored four esteemed alumni, including Van Pelt, with awards. Mike Crawford, another 1987 grad, was presented with the Professional Achievement award.
WCU Chancellor Kelli R. Brown and Mike Crawford
For Crawford, to be honored by the university was not only a personal triumph, but also one for those closest to him.
“I was shocked and honored and humbled,” Crawford said before Saturday’s celebration. “To win that award from your alma mater, and I grew up in Sylva, which is down the road from Cullowhee, so my mother will be able to be there, and I’m real excited for her to see her son get an award like that.”
Numerous alumni were exposed to several changes during last week’s homecoming. They’ve seen an increase in diversity, a more tech-savvy campus and an up-and-coming football team.
But the thing that remains the same? Their love for the university.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said John Connet, WCU Alumni Board president. “Meeting new people, seeing old friends. It’s just a great opportunity to renew friendships, build new friendships, particularly with a group of people that have the same love for this university as I do.”
