The first Homecoming started what the students felt should be an annual tradition. That very first year, ISU president canceled classes Friday and Saturday of that year’s homecoming.

Students began demanding class breaks, with no luck, until the 1930s. It was then that students took action and created their own class break. A group of students disrupted class by barging into classrooms and recruiting students to join their group.

The entire group then began participating in a spontaneous pep rally and street dance in front of what is now Beardshear Hall. This version of the class break lasted for approximately a decade.

The homecoming of 1949 brought a new version of the class break. In this year, more than 3,000 students marched on the knoll during the Thursday night of Homecoming week. These students chanted: “No school Friday.” At first the then president of Iowa State refused. He eventually gave in to a special holiday after Friday afternoon to appease the riot.

Then he promised no school Monday if the football team won the football game on Saturday. This deal remained intact for the next few years, until the class break was forgotten as a whole and eventually completely disappeared from the list of ISU Homecoming traditions.