Alumni village features kazoo band, live entertainment and a blast from the past

Los Angeles Tim Jackson, 1986 alumni, left, and L’Ance Todd Overbeek, 1977 alumni, right, play their kazoos together before the Homecoming game Saturday afternoon in Alumni Village. “The kazoos are our little contribution to everyone,” said Jackson. (Taylor Ballek/ Staff Photographer)

About 100 people participated in a five-year tradition of playing the fight song on kazoos at the Alumni Village Saturday.

The alumni village provided a place for Central Michigan University alumni to tailgate before the Homecoming football game. Each college operated a tent complete with food and games for alumni and their families to enjoy.  Toward the end of the event, attendees of the alumni village used kazoos to play the CMU fight song.

The kazoos were a big part in the celebration before the football game, along with the reunion of the graduating class of 1962. It has become a tradition for the president of CMU to join in the kazoo band, but University President George Ross wasn’t in attendance this year.

Larry Lindsay, originally from Midland, became a CMU student in 1958 because he didn’t have a lot of choices for colleges.

“I had friends that I could stay with that lived nearby,” he said.

CMU was a teacher’s college in 1958 that trained students to become teachers in their area of interest. It became an official university in 1960.

Lindsay didn’t finish his last year of training for teaching, but instead he graduated with majors in chemistry and math. He married Sarah between his junior and senior year in college, living in Preston Court apartments their senior year.

After graduation, he served in the army for 21 years, retiring in 1983. He found a job near Drummond, Va., that he continued for 27 years after retirement. He officially retired in 2010.

“If I didn’t serve in the army, I would have been a teacher,” he said.

Mount Pleasant alumni Jim and Mary Ellen Wynes met at CMU in 1962 and have been together ever since.

“We met the first day in orientation,” Mary Ellen said. “He asked me to dance with him at a mixer, and we’ve been together ever since.”

The alumni village also featured an opportunity for children to step back in time and try on old CMU football jerseys and cheerleading uniforms, courtesy of the Museum of Cultural and Natural History.