Baylor University was the first coeducational university in the South, and only the second in the country. Even so, the education women received at Baylor for many years was fundamentally different than the men’s. Women stayed within the bounds of the more “feminine” degrees such as education or music, and access to on-campus organizations was severely limited. Female students were held to high standards and kept under close supervision by the Dean of Women. They had to adhere to a strict dress code (superintendents could remove undesirable clothing from student’s closets), attend Sunday school and church services every Sunday, sign out any time they left campus, observe a strict curfew, and keep good grades in order to be allowed to date, ride in a car, or leave campus.

As women’s rights activists made headway in the early twentieth century, coed institutions received more and more female applicants. Baylor was no exception. In the 1920s, Baylor received so many applications from women that they had to turn them away due to a lack of space. At the time, Georgia Burleson Hall and a few small annexes were the only women’s residential spaces on campus, and women who were not from Waco were not allowed to live off campus due to university administration’s desire to keep them protected and out of trouble. The male students, by comparison, were not subject to the same levels of supervision as the women and were trusted to live off campus. The ones that did live on campus were housed in then-brand-new Brooks Hall.

Despite being advertised as better than the accommodations at other universities, Burleson Hall was cramped, leaky, outdated, and only housed around 200 women, and the annexes could hold around 200 altogether. In the mid-1920s, the number of women enrolled at Baylor was around one thousand. In light of this space issue, President Samuel Palmer Brooks began planning the addition of a new women’s dormitory. The Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, having observed the piety and Christian attitudes of Baylor students, took an interest and pledged to help the university raise funds for this new building. They advertised in Waco newspapers to secure donations from the community, and sororities on campus aided them with fundraisers.

In 1928, a groundbreaking ceremony took place at the site of the new dormitory on the corner of Seventh and Speight. Baylor alumna, renowned author, and Columbia University professor Dorothy Scarborough addressed the spectators at this event. Scarborough emphasized the importance of remembering the exceptional women in Baylor’s history and made a commitment to be present at similar events in the future. Baylor administrators overseeing the project hoped that the groundbreaking might serve as a reminder to the community that the project was still underway, and hopefully inspire them to resume their donations, which had decreased significantly.

Woman’s Memorial Dormitory, named in honor of the Woman’s Missionary Union, was finished in 1930 and cost approximately $350,000. Securing funding for this project was no small feat, as at this time the country was suffering in the early days of the Great Depression. At this time, the building could house 245 women, and boasted a dining hall, a chapel, a study hall, and two banquet rooms. On October 15, 1930, the university suspended classes for two hours so that faculty, staff, and students could attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new dormitory. President Brooks, speaking at this ceremony, thanked the Woman’s Missionary Union for making the idea for the new dormitory into a reality, and further thanked all the women of Texas for their contributions to the project. Mrs. F. S. Davis, president of the Woman’s Missionary Union, also addressed the attendees, speaking of her hopes that the women of the dormitory would grow in their faith and be strong, Christian leaders in their community. “The fervent prayer,” she said, “that wells up from the heart of the Women’s Missionary Union today is that ‘our daughters may be as polished cornerstones after the similitude of a palace.’ For truly you, our daughters, are our glory and our crown.”

In 2005, Memorial and neighboring hall Alexander became home to the university’s Honors College Living and Learning Community, or HC-LLC (often called the Hick-Lick), with Memorial housing the women and Alexander housing the men. Four years later the university upgraded the community to the status of residential college. The Honors Residential College is known across campus for its tight-knit community, goofy traditions, and, in the words of one former Baylor professor,its “common love of uncommon things.” In 2023, the university renovated both Memorial and Alexander, updating facilities, rooms, and common spaces, as well as adding the new Carona Family Commons, a two-floor shared common area connecting the two buildings.

Woman’s Memorial Dormitory, now simply called Memorial Hall, has been a welcoming home away from home to Baylor women for almost 100 years. Memorial was instrumental in improving women’s access to education at Baylor when it was built, and the impact it and its founders had on the university is still visible.

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One of the most popular places to visit on Baylor University’s campus is the Bill and Eva Williams Bear Habitat, home to Baylor’s live bear mascot. The first habitat was built in 1945, but through the years the desire to increase the quality of life for the bears drove the university to rebuild the habitat again and again, until it became the haven it is today.

Baylor has had a live bear mascot since 1917. The first live bear mascot, Ted, often called “Bruin,” belonged to a nearby Camp MacArthur soldier, who let students parade the bear across the football field during a game and then left the bear to the students when he was deployed overseas. Ted served as Baylor’s mascot until the early 1920s. As there was no habitat at this time, Ted was kept at the Texas Cotton Palace’s small zoo. The bears following Ted would sometimes live off campus but were for the most part kept on university grounds, usually in a pen along Waco Creek. In 1932, Baylor student Bill Boyd acquired a bear named Joe College from the Cotton Palace, which was closing. Joe had been a show bear, and his friendliness and personality quickly made him a favorite of Baylor students. Boyd kept the bear in his backyard until Joe grew to weigh 500 pounds and could no longer be safely housed at his residence. At this point, the Baylor University Chamber of Commerce volunteered to build him a home on campus. Joe College was retired in 1940, and Chamber officially assumed care of his successor, Little Joe.

In 1945, Chamber raised the funds and built Baylor’s first real bear habitat. Located (as it is today) on the banks of Waco Creek, the habitat was known as the “Bear Pit.” It featured a swimming pool and space for the bears to climb or walk around, surrounded by a barrier originally made of iron bed headboards. The Bear Pit underwent renovations in 1949, 1953, and 1969. Chamber also added a trailer in 1953 which transported the bears to and from football games, when previously the bears had been transported in a car or train. The bears frequently tested the strength and security of the Bear Pit with their repeated and often successful escape attempts. The Pit was the home of Baylor’s bears until 1977. At this point, the university decided to demolish it and build the Steve Hudson Memorial Bear Plaza in its place. The Steve Hudson Memorial Bear Plaza was built into the sloping bank of Waco Creek, with an open area where the bears could exercise at creek level and pens and viewing decks at ground level. It was three times the size of its predecessor and included a waterfall and AstroTurf. The Plaza held a Class-C zoo license from the United States Department of Agriculture and was approved by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to hold up to three bears.

In 1999, Chamber began pushing the university to update the habitat again, and in 2003 the university finally began the process. Chamber members worked with administrators from Cameron Park Zoo to develop the plans for the bears’ new home. The new habitat opened in 2005, and university administration named it the Bill and Eva Williams Bear Habitat Complex after the project’s lead donors. This complex, which still houses the university mascots, is Baylor’s most sophisticated habitat yet. The environment resembles the bears’ natural environment and includes many new features designed for the enrichment and care of the bears. Another major change to the enclosure was the elevation, as the whole complex was raised to ground level. Viewing areas encircle about half of the outside border, allowing visitors to easily observe the bears’ behavior, and placards provide information about both the history of Baylor’s bears and about black bears in general.

The Bill and Eva Williams Bear Habitat is the safest place on campus and could withstand winds from a category five hurricane, according to the Robert Reid Director of the Baylor Chamber of Commerce, Dakota Farquhar-Caddell. The habitat received accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) in 2021. It is the only university mascot facility to achieve this designation and one of only two AZA accredited zoos on a college campus. Finally, the university added a Community Education Pavilion to the complex in 2022, promoting community engagement and education about the bears.

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For over a century, the Baylor University Homecoming Parade has played an important role in the relationship between the institution, its alumni, and the greater Waco community. The tradition began in the fall of 1909, when Baylor alumni received a postcard inviting them to return home to campus in order to rekindle school spirit and renew former friendships. This announcement of Baylor’s first homecoming drew hundreds of alumni back to campus on Thanksgiving weekend for what would become one of university’s largest celebrations. The weekend included concerts, class reunions, speeches by professors, and, on the morning of the last football game of the season, a grand parade through downtown.

The Baylor Processional of 1909 began by heading west on Washington Avenue, continuing to Austin Avenue, and traveling along the city’s major streets before arriving on campus for the game’s kickoff. Nearly twenty-five blocks of participants lined the streets, eager to share their school spirit. Led by the university’s marching band, the processional included faculty, the football team, and various student organizations. Automobiles and carriages decorated with green and gold pennants and yellow chrysanthemums carried dignitaries such as the university president, Samuel Palmer Brooks, and notable alumni.

The greater Waco community also took part in the homecoming parade since its debut. Shopkeepers and restaurant owners downtown decorated their storefronts with green and gold and joined the throng lining the streets as the parade passed through downtown. Some even joined the processional, setting a precedent for cooperation between the Waco community and the university. Alessandro’s Band, a family brass ensemble who regularly held concerts in venues such as the Brazos city riverboats and the Texas Cotton Palace, performed and marched in the 1909 processional.

Baylor Homecoming was not initially conceived as an annual event. The next homecoming parade did not occur until 1915, held to mark the seventieth anniversary of the founding of Baylor University. Floats first appeared in the parade that year. One 1915 float depicted a freshman entering a hall and exiting as a senior. By the 1920s, floats became the standard method of transportation during the parade, often portraying patriotic themes. In the 1915 parade, the Baylor mascot also made its debut. In the months preceding the festivities, students voted on their choice of mascot and the bear was revealed as the winner over options such as the antelope, buffalo, and ferret.

Baylor’s 1924 football season was so successful that the Baylor Alumni Association voted to make the homecoming celebration an annual event. The basic elements of the homecoming parade remained constant from the 1920s forward, although each year the alumni association sought to outdo the previous years’ celebration. 

Escalating international tensions in the 1940s cast a shadow over university activities. All male students between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five were required to register with the military, and many were called away from their studies to serve in the war. From 1943 to 1945, the alumni association canceled the homecoming celebrations in order to best preserve supplies during times of dire shortages. As the war came to a close, the alumni association put plans into motion for the “greatest parade to date” in 1946. It promoted not only Baylor spirit but also celebrated soldiers returning home and the end of the war.

Baylor’s homecoming celebrations have continued annually since the end of World War II, and in 2009, Baylor celebrated its homecoming centennial. The parade has grown to include dozens of student organizations, local businesses, and Waco high schools. Now, each fall is marked by this grand and time-honored spectacle, an essential element in the fabric of the university and greater community.

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