Texana Thursday: 4 Fun Facts about Homecoming Mums

High school football season is underway in Texas. So is homecoming mum season.

Homecoming, as a football tradition, isn’t new. It’s a cause for celebration, where people return to their dear old Alma Mater for the big football game, usually against either the arch-rival (lots of fan interest), or for a weaker team (improving the odds that dear old Alma Mater will win the game).

According to The Mum Store, in Plano, the NCAA recognizes that the homecoming tradition began in 1911 in Missouri.

But leave it to Texas to make things bigger and better with homecoming mums.

Fun facts about homecoming mums include:

1. Mums aren’t just for Texans.

“For the longest time, homecoming mums were a Texas-only tradition, but in the last few years it has expanded into neighboring states such as Oklahoma and Louisiana,” The Mum Shop web site says. “A huge mum can be a source of pride for a girl in both her school and her homecoming date.”

2. Mums are not for ladies only.

Ladies wear mums, and gentlemen where garters. The gentlemen wear their garters on their arms. The garters are designed to match the mum where possible.

3. Mums can be uniquely individual.

Mums follow certain basic practices. For example, the mum itself and its accompanying ribbons are in school colors. The ribbons have the names of the individuals involved (for example, John and Marsha). The ribbons might also say things like “Homecoming” or the homecoming year.

But mums can also be unique to the individual. The garter pictured here has a bear (the mascot for Hastings High School, in Alief). The bear, in turn, holds a baseball bat. This is to symbolize that the person wearing this garter was a baseball player.

Other mums can include miniature football helmets, bells, and other trinkets attached to the ribbons.

4. Mums are more than flowers—they’re keepsakes.

Places like The Mum Store, Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, or other craft shops recognize something that many Texas parents and students do—namely, that the mums are a one-time purchase for a lifetime of memories.

“A mum can never be thrown away,” writes the blogger Lee Ann Lewis. “Every girl knows that. It is packed away in a box when she goes off to college. The box will be lost when her parents move, and she’ll never see the mum again. But that doesn’t matter.”