Centralight

Grand Marshal Scott McNeal leads the football team out onto the field. Homecoming dreams Scott McNeal couldn't sit still during the Alumni Continental Breakfast the Saturday of Homecoming weekend. The 1979 graduate swelled with pride and got humbly giddy at the excitement surrounding the reality that he was serving as Homecoming Grand Marshal at his beloved alma mater. This was the day McNeal, a physical education program graduate and founder of the nationwide Gus Macker basketball tournament, never dreamed would happen. 1 "People that know me keep asking, 'Oh, you're the grand marshal, what does that mean?'" McNeal pauses, and then takes a deep breath to explain. "I'm like, 'It's a life-altering experience to be the grand marshal at your alma mater!' I love coming back." McNeal enjoyed celebrating Homecoming 2011 with CMU alumni and friends as well as his family including wife, Renee, and daughters Meg, who is a senior apparel merchandising and design major at CMU, and 13-year-old Sam. In addition to traditional grand marshal duties of firing up the crowd at the Rock Rally, riding in the Homecoming parade and being honored during the game, McNeal had greater goals to achieve as the 2011 Homecoming Grand Marshal. "When you're like me, you never stop dreaming. I got grand marshal and now I have other aspirations," he says. "I want to run out with the team. I still can't believe I'm grand marshal." Later that afternoon, the Homecoming grand marshal's dream came true. At the CMU football game against Eastern Michigan, a very charged McNeal led his team onto the field. He waved his hand in the air as they ran under a "Fire Up, Chips!" banner. Proud to be a CMU Chippewa. • Engineering students create cardboard boats and sail across Rose Pond. centralight winter '11 31 CMU alumna Elizabeth Paddock, '03, with her children and her father, Ben Franas, '70. The Homecoming 2011 Gold Ambassadors are Alan Jones and Meredith Clark.

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