Leaves are falling, long sleeves are in order and it’s that time of year when midterms are rolling around. But more importantly, it’s the time of year when alumni return to relive and celebrate the memories of their college days over Homecoming weekend.

On Saturday, Big Red football will face off with long-time rival Colgate University at 1 p.m. on Schoellkopf Field, but aside from the game itself, Homecoming weekend provides a time when current students and alumni can get together to celebrate their spirit and love of Cornell.

The Office of Alumni Affairs has planned a number of organized events that alumni can attend from October 12-14. These events include a tailgate at the Crescent parking lot with a jazz band, an A Capella United concert and a Glee Club concert.

Although these events provide incentive for alumni to return, the promise of seeing old friends is incentive enough.

“There’s no place like Cornell,” said Marcia Epstein ’64, who chaired the alumni Homecoming committee 20-odd years ago. “I’ve come to Homecoming for a number of years … It has been said that there are no more loyal alums than at Cornell.”

For Epstein, a Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service award recipient, Homecoming weekend is a time to honor other alumni who have served Cornell by attending a dinner honoring the recipients of the award.

“The Friday night of Homecoming is the night that they have the dinner. Since I have received that honor, I like to honor these people by coming to the dinner,” Epstein said. “It has to do with giving back to an institution that has given so much to us. I want to promote a love of Cornell to younger students.”

Current students certainly partake in all that Homecoming weekend has to offer. Greek life offers events for both alumni and current sorority and fraternity members to reunite and interact, such as mixers, brunches, and various tailgating events.

Through the office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, every fraternity has the opportunity to reserve an area near Schoellkopf where they can tailgate. Members of the Interfraternity Council will be patrolling the tailgating areas to ensure that fraternities are following specific guidelines and are registered to tailgate, according to Ryan Lavin ’09, vice president of programming for the IFC.

“The point of the tailgates is to get a lot of the Greek community and their alumni down to the game so that they can show off their spirit before and during the game,” Lavin said. “It’s also to connect undergrads with alumni. We like Cornell and our chapters that much more because alumni come back. It’s an opportunity for them once a year to live as an undergraduate Cornellian one more time.”

Aside from IFC organized events, fraternities and sororities have their own events among each chapter.

Rachel Dorfman-Tandlich ’09, relations chair for the sorority Kappa Delta, explained that many alumni come back to Homecoming to see their pledge classes.

“This is the one time when everyone comes back. The lineages in our house are important so the alums want to come back to spend time with their littles. I think it’s mostly to spend time with their friends who had graduated,” Dorfman-Tandlich said.

But Homecoming isn’t just for Greeks or alumni who enjoy celebrating the spirit of Cornell. Anyone can go to the game on Saturday and cheer for the Big Red’s 90th meeting with Colgate since 1896, according to Cornell Athletics. Last year, the Big Red devastated the Raiders, winning 38-14.

For the football team, the energy surrounding Homecoming weekend is exciting although the players treat Homecoming like any other game, according to Brian Fitzpatrick ’09, a member of the team.

“The Homecoming game always gets a good turn out, and the crowd always gets us a little more pumped up,” Fitzpatrick said. “You try not to think about it too much, but you can't help but feed off the energy that comes from a good, rowdy crowd. As far as all the festivities though, we really just focus on the game, and then whatever is going on after we kind of just figure out when we get there.”

Fitzpatrick also said that former players often stop by on Friday night of Homecoming weekend to greet the team.

“The fact that so many alumni are back on campus for the game is also a source of motivation,” said Luke Siwula ’08. “You always want to play a good game in front of those people you have spent your last three years on campus with, and more specifically you want to make those alumni that you played with proud.”