St. Gregory's University will host its annual homecoming celebration beginning today (Friday), with events slated through Saturday. This year's theme is "Building Tradition."

SGU alumni relations director Danielle Gelnar said the university wanted to get back to its roots on the timing of homecoming. This year's festivities will be held in conjunction with the men's and women's basketball games against Northwestern Oklahoma State. In previous years, St. Gregory's had hosted homecoming in the fall with soccer.

"St. Gregory's has sponsored basketball since its infancy, even dating back to when it was a high school," Gelnar said. "Because of this, we felt like it was natural to get back to having homecoming around a basketball game since it's a big tradition for us in sports."

Events kick off at 6:30 p.m. Friday night with registration and the traditional "First Night Social" in the Rockwood Center's Shawnee Community Room. SGU will host an alumni breakfast in the community room on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m., discussing the progress as well as the future of the university. The annual alumni banquet will also be hosted in the community room at noon on Saturday.

As part of the banquet, SGU will induct the late Fr. John Bloms and the late Robert "Dutch" Hellinghausen into its sports hall of fame. Bloms coached the St. Gregory's High School football team from 1943-53 compiling a 46-39-4 record. In that span, Bloms led St. Gregory's to five Catholic State Championships. Hellinghausen was a standout fullback/lineman at St. Gregory's High School from 1940-43 before attending Tulsa University, where he was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference selection.

Mass will be held at the abbey church at 4 p.m. Saturday, with the basketball game's tailgate party beginning at 4:30 p.m. outside the W.P. Wood Fieldhouse. The basketball games are slated for 6 and 8 p.m., and the homecoming coronation will occur following the girls' game, approximately 7:45 p.m.

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