Many schools build bonfires to kick off the week or bring it to a sizzling close. Dartmouth College has celebrated with a bonfire since 1904, though the specifics have changed through the years. Today, freshman build the bonfire under the supervision of a safety inspector and then run around it 100 laps plus the number of laps corresponding with their graduation year. After the tragic Texas A&M bonfire collapse of 1999, schools that continue the tradition do so with safety rules and supervision.
Other schools light up the night differently, but no less spectacularly. Brigham Young University students have been lighting the huge "Y" on a mountain since 1924. Back then, they hauled bits of mattresses soaked in kerosene up the mountain and lit them with gasoline. For safety's sake and longer burning time, they now use 18 strands of lights ceremoniously lit in unison by members of campus groups.
Some homecoming traditions are simple but grow through their quest to be the biggest, longest or best attended event. The University of Central Florida has received several awards for its Spirit Splash, a 15-year tradition of thousands of students charging into the reflecting pond on the Friday before the homecoming game, encouraged by cheerleaders and the band.
Both Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University shook tradition in 2012 by upsetting gender roles when choosing their homecoming kings and queens. ASU broke with tradition by discarding the old king and queen titles in favor of "homecoming royalty" so that two males or two females could be crowned if they were most qualified. At NAU, without pre-planning, a female decided to run for king, prompting a male to run for queen. Both won.
Since 1948, when students stretched cowhide over a Jack Daniels keg to make a drum, the drumbeat has been a tradition at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas. Beginning in the 1950s, however, the tradition grew so that the drumbeat continued nonstop all week, from Monday until the homecoming kickoff on Saturday. Campus groups sign up for one-hour shifts to fill the week -- tradition says the constant drumbeat ensures the college will win the homecoming game.