Students and staff alike received the GVSU 50th anniversary homecoming with open arms, appreciating the pull of community offered by the busy week.

Data collected by Alumni Relations shows the total tailgate numbers at 927, pancake breakfast attendance at 48, Jason Derullo alumni ticket sales at 66 and the 5K run at 255 total participants.

“Two words: Laker Unity,” said junior Thom Hunt, business major. “The best part of homecoming was the school spirit that emanated across the campus. Especially, specifically, during LipDub.”

Writing major Victoria Westman agreed that homecoming and LipDub not only brought students together, but the entire GVSU community, to boot.

“I feel like homecoming really brings everyone together for the rest of the year,” she said. “Everyone was involved in LipDub, even the professors. I think professors were viewed at a whole new level because they were dancing on that field with those umbrellas.”

The LipDub video made its debut at the Homecoming football game on Saturday night on the Lubbers Stadium video screen and was well received by the crowd.

Among the spectators was Tayler Keefer, a writing major. Although she is a third-year student at GVSU, it was Keefer’s first year in attendance at the Homecoming game, and she said she enjoyed the experience.

“The football game was really fun,” Keefer said. “Win or lose, it’s always a victory – we’re Lakers.”

About 12,300 people attended the game on Saturday night. Though this amount was 721 people shy of the stadium’s season high of 13,128 in the season opener against West Texas A&M University, it was still twice the normal capacity for Lubbers Stadium.

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