It hasn’t always been a democratically elected monarchy. The first Queen was Gretchen Johnson ’35. She was presented with a bejeweled crown and an ermine robe, and “reigned over the Homecoming weekend.” A Homecoming King shows up much later, and only as part of a tradition of naming a first-year Homecoming King and Queen couple. There’s a hiatus from official Homecoming royalty starting in 1971, when the student community elected to drop it. Bummer. Fifteen years later, in 1986, students brought it back. “I really like the paradox of electing a monarchy—an apparent contradiction in terms,” man-on-the-street Pete Youngs ’89 told the Gustavian Weekly. Royalty Linn Erickson ’86 and Corey Peterson ’86 reigned then. The tradition has carried on since, with less focus on ermine robes and gender norms and more on school, community, and Gustie spirit.
