Homecoming parade to take new route

Katie Bolton, left, and her husband Micah Bolton, right, delayed their honeymoon so they could attend the Homecoming parade and football game last year. Samuel Penning, 4, watches with the Boltons as Marching Mizzou passes. Penning is the Boltons' friends' child.   ¦  ASHLEY FUTRELL/Missourian

The Homecoming parade route will look a little bit different this year.

The parade, which used to travel down Hitt Street, will now run north up Ninth Street to Broadway and then turn south on Sixth Street, ending by the Reynolds Alumni Center.

To relieve congestion in the pre-parade lineup, the parade will run in the opposite direction of previous years. It will begin at the corner of Conley and Missouri avenues — near the MU Law School — and end by the alumni center.

“The reason for the change in the parade route is due to the addition of two center barricades on Hitt Street, which doesn’t allow enough room for the floats to pass through,” Homecoming Tri-Director Ryan Murdock said.

To determine an alternate route, the Homecoming Committee looked around downtown for the best streets for floats, Murdock said.

“A nice thing that came from the new route is that there are now much better opportunities for parking,” he said.