Home is where the heart is, and where the Lopes were, for GCU Homecoming

Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow

The "Cotton-Eyed Joe” blares across the Grand Canyon University Quad via disc jockey, inspiring students to start scootin’ their boots and throwing in a little hop and heel-kick.

Then there are the three bananas that saunter by – well, a trio of students wearing banana costumes.

It's the Havocs, some dressed as bananas, some as beauty queens, complete with “Havoc leader” sashes spelled out in glitter. But most are dressed in black for Black Out Night. They're lined up pretty in a row and making their way into Global Credit Union Arena on Saturday afternoon for the men’s 6 p.m. basketball game against the Wyoming Cowboys.

Someone nearby pipes in as he maneuvers through the crowd, “I’m just tryin’ to get to the brats!” as grillers along the fenceline are in deep burger- and bratwurst-grilling mode.

It’s a typical tailgating scene you might see before any Havocs-charged home basketball game.

Then again, it wasn’t the typical tailgate and men’s basketball game.

It was GCU Homecoming, and around 500 alumni who registered to attend homecoming festivities returned home to celebrate their alma mater, not just at the game and preceding tailgate, but at the Alumni Hall of Fame ceremony and the volunteer workday at CityServe earlier in the day.

One of those alumni, Charles Hayes, found his way to the alumni tent to claim his official Black Out Night alum T-shirt, though he already was dressed most spiritedly for the game in head-to-toe purple, complete with a translucent purple cross around his neck.

Yes, he’s an alum, he said, but, “I’m still, technically, a student."

The sexagenarian, who’s in the midst of his doctor of education program in organizational leadership (he already earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at GCU), first came to campus in 2015.

“I’m here. I’m a season ticketholder. They can’t get rid of me,” said Charles with a smile. He's a joyful spark plug that brings the energy level around him up a notch or two as he tries on a T-shirt that's too small. “I’m fighting with this one!” he told Jac Trboyevich, annual giving and Alumni Relations specialist, who helped check in alumni at one corner of the Quad.

Charles' dissertation is on behavior change in addicted individuals.

It’s a topic that’s close to his heart.

“I was addicted over 35 years of my life to drugs and alcohol,” he said. “So I’m trying to contribute to that field in helping people in that area.”

He came to GCU because, “My brother (Larry) came through here, and I wanted to learn more about God and build a relationship with God. … It’s held up to everything I was expecting.”

Larry graduated from the university (then Grand Canyon College) in 1979 while he served in the military. When he was deployed, his wife, who knows shorthand, would come to his class and take notes.

Back then, Larry was among a student body of 1,300, seemingly oceans apart from the modern GCU, a sprawling campus spanning 300-plus acres that’s home to more than 25,000 ground students and about 108,000 online students.

The college was so small, big campus ceremonies were held at Phoenix Baptist Church. Not like now, where thousands of commencement attendees stream into Global Credit Union Arena, the 135,000-square-foot space that towered over Saturday’s homecoming tailgate festivities.

And he still remembers one of his favorite teachers, Mrs. Brown, an administrator, who “got me through,” Larry said. “It was so small, we would just walk in her office. She would know your name.”

Larry and Charles? Season ticketholders.

“I just like the atmosphere of this school,” Larry said of why he continues to come back for homecoming and games. “Everybody’s so friendly.”

GCU always has been home for them.

As it has been for Terry Morris, a 1988 environmental science graduate.

“I started going to the basketball games when I was 10, in 1970,” said Morris, whose father, Dr. Erdie Lee Morris, taught at GCU for 37 years, some of that time as dean of the then College of Science and Allied Health. “I’m a Lope fan through and through, especially basketball.”

The tailgates, “We usually come to the tailgates (for homecoming). We don’t always do that, but for homecoming, absolutely,” said Terry, also a season ticketholder.

“We love it. What can we say? We love the atmosphere,” said wife Nancy.

A group of friends whose history with GCU is more recent decided to reunite for homecoming weekend.

“We love GCU. We’ve all been a friend group since freshman year,” said Sam Pick, who graduated in 2025 with a degree in elementary education. “We’ve all just stayed in Phoenix. It’s just where everything started for us.”

Added 2025 communications alumna Janessa Fuentes, “I feel like we see each other all the time. But at GCU, it’s fun. It’s our stomping grounds – just to relive the memories.”

Just a few minutes later, the “Call to the Post” bugle call, usually heard to herald the beginning of a horse race, sounded over the intercom at the Quad. It was time for the Associated Students of GCU’s Homecoming Derby.

“It’s just a good step away from our everyday activities,” said Tucker Hudson, student body president, of the event, which features racers in homemade derby cars representing such groups as the Canyon Activities Board, Multicultural Office, Honors College and ROTC, to name a few. “It’s a good time and is just something to unite us.”

It also gets the hype going before the big game, Hudson said, just before multiple heats of races and the rise to the top of a winner, this year the Society of Women Engineers.

Across campus, the tone was a bit more reverential for the Alumni Hall of Fame induction ceremony, when the following honorees were inducted:

At the event, Cherylann Galdi, senior director of annual giving and Alumni Relations, said there was one overriding message at homecoming: “That alumni have a sense of belonging.”

Manager of Internal Communications Lana Sweeten-Shults, editor of GCU News and GCU Magazine, can be reached at [email protected].