A deep dive into the Spirit Week through the decades.
This year is the 60th anniversary for not only Rank&File, but also Marshall itself. Through these 60 years, both the publication and the school have changed drastically.
With Homecoming occurring every year, we always somehow have something different to talk about.
Since then, we’ve changed up our spirit week days and discontinued the gendered Powderpuff game and Mr. Marshall competition in exchange for co-ed kickball and a school-wide talent show. It made it more inclusive for students, making some feel as though they could finally participate in school-wide activities to strengthen their bond with the community.
Spirit Week in 1996 gave classes the opportunity to gain custody of the Marshall “M” by winning the most points throughout Spirit week, which is not a tradition we do anymore.
On the topic of Homecoming, it seems like the further back the articles go, the more absurd the news becomes. According to a 1996 issue, once learning “SHOCK!” was the Homecoming theme, a student pulled the fire alarm, which caused the school to rush out before the pep rally, which used to be indoors. To think the whole school could fit in the gym! A week later, a senior reportedly set the sophomore Homecoming float on fire. Students these days are thankfully not as dramatic as they used to be.
Here’s what the Spirit Day schedule looked like in 2003: Pajama day, Wacky Hair day, Farmer day, Superhero day and class colors day. Superhero day meant that each grade had a different superhero to dress up as. Seniors were the X-Men, juniors were Superman, sophomores were Batman and freshmen were Spider-Man. These spirit days were much different than the ones that took place this most recent Homecoming week, and the idea to have more of a pop-culture themed spirit day would have been interesting for students to display what interests them.
In 2004, the staff wrote an article about exchange students and mentioned how apparently European schools did not hold school dances. The foreign exchange students were experiencing the Homecoming dance for the first time.
Throughout the decades, we’ve shifted and changed as a publication and as a school. We’ve had activities that would be interesting to revisit, and some that are better left in the past.