As SIUC prepares for homecoming this weekend, a few faculty members and Carbondale residents may remember a few years when the celebration was marred by problems with planned events.

In anticipation of this weekend’s events, the DE has compiled a list of memorable glitches from years past.

n The DE in 1964 reported that Alpha Phi Omega spent 120 man hours building a bonfire for homecoming out of railroad ties. One hour after it was built, Saluki patrolmen told participants that railroad ties could not be used in building the bonfire because they were too hard to extinguish.

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n The1969 homecoming queen pageant almost did not happen, according to the Daily Egyptian that year. The legality of the homecoming queen and attendant elections came into question because of a high number of violations of student government election rules. Eight of the 11 queen candidates and 11 of the 13 attendant candidates had violated the student government election rules.

The queens and attendants were accused of campaigning and soliciting for certain candidates within a 25-foot radius of the polling places. The DE reported that the majority of the violators left when told that they were wrong, but some did not. One candidate even dropped fliers out of an airplane to get votes.

The1969 homecoming election results were declared null and void by the student senate. The student senate then voted to abolish the title of homecoming queen permanently. It was then voted by the campus judicial board that the student senate had exceeded its powers, and a queen was crowned in 1969.

n In 1970, instead of the traditional bonfire, a pollution pyramid of bagged trash gathered on a clean-up day in Carbondale was made.

The pyramid literally went up in smoke when a prankster set the pile on fire. The SIU fire department was called to put out the flames.

Thick black smoke left from the fire lingered over the area as the four finalists in the Miss SIU contest were announced, the Daily Egyptian reported.