West Liberty University’s (WLU) Alumni Homecoming Royalty returned to the Hilltop on Saturday, Sept. 23. iThey came to celebrate this year’s Homecoming, with special guest Mary Fran Kowalo celebrating her 50th anniversary of becoming Homecoming Queen. 

Ingrid Loy is a professor at West Liberty in the Gary E. West College of Business and is WLU’s 1995 Homecoming Queen. Around 12 years ago, Loy gathered alumni queens and was a part of the annual homecoming parade. She decided this year it was time to try again. 10 queens participated in Saturday’s homecoming parade float that included the 50-year queen, 30-year queen, and the 10-year queen. 

Loy reiterates that she intends to make this a growing event, “We’re actually going to start planning next month,  for next year so we can have a lot more queens come back”

In addition to a growing WLU Homecoming tradition, WLU’s 1973 Homecoming Queen, Mary Fran Kowalo, celebrated her 50th year anniversary on the Hilltop this last Saturday by crowning this year’s Homecoming Queen alongside the 2022 Homecoming Queen, Olivia Miller at halftime. 

Kowalo is a 1975 graduate of West Liberty and was ecstatic to be a part of this year’s festivities. She states, “I know it was 50 years ago today, but I still have that love in my heart today as I had when I first entered.”