As the university celebrates the United States’ 250th birthday this year, we look back on Elon College’s Bicentennial festivities.
On a crisp spring morning in 1976, the town of Elon College shook with the sound of marching bands and the beat of cloggers’ feet. It was April 10 — Festival Day — and Elon College was ready to celebrate. Anticipation for the nation’s Bicentennial had been building for months, and when the day of Elon’s celebration (which coincided with the town’s birthday festivities) finally arrived, the campus and the community marked it together in spirited fashion.
The event had been in the making since the previous fall. The college’s Bicentennial committee — led by George Troxler, then a professor of history specializing in American colonial and revolutionary history — was deep in planning, threading the spirit of 1776 through everything from athletics to the arts.
An October 1975 weekend had offered a preview of what was to come. The cross country team carried the Bicentennial flag to Hillsborough, North Carolina, and returned to campus along a route used in the 18th century. They formally handed the flag to Elon President J. Fred Young at a ceremony in front of Alamance Building. A golf tournament at Alamance Country Club, a dance at Alumni Gym and a sunrise flag-raising at Elon’s ROTC site all added to the weekend’s festive atmosphere. Bicentennial meals with period-appropriate recipes were offered for $2, a fitting nod to colonial-era frugality.
But it was Festival Day on April 10, 1976, that brought everything together. The morning opened with a parade through downtown Elon College, featuring the Alamance- Caswell Marine Color Guard, the Western High School Band, local Boy Scouts and the Elon Middle School Drum and Fife Corps, among others. From Whitley Auditorium, a one-act comedy titled “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” drew audiences into the revolutionary spirit of the occasion.
The afternoon unfolded across campus in a joyful sprawl of activity. A picnic on the north end of campus gave way to an art and photography exhibition at Harden Center. The Elon College Concert Band performed on the North Campus lawn. And at 1 p.m., the day’s most enduring ceremony took place: the dedication of a new campus gazebo. Mayor T. L. Smith of Elon College and President Young offered remarks, and the college’s concert band and choir provided special music, with a prayer led by the Rev. Clyde Fields.
Later in the afternoon, Bicentennial games were held on the soccer field, followed by a street dance featuring the Western Express Jazz Ensemble and the Western Kids, with the Elon College Middle School Cloggers adding a distinctly local flavor to the festivities.
“This joint celebration of the Bicentennial and the town’s birthday concluded with dancing in the street,” The Pendulum, Elon’s student newspaper, reported at the time.
The celebrations reflected a broader truth about Elon College in 1976: The campus and the surrounding community were deeply intertwined. Festival Day wasn’t simply a college event.
It was a town celebration, and Elon was proud to host it.
Learn how Elon is honoring 250 years of the American spirit this year in this Today at Elon article.