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DOMINIC BAIMA | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Homecoming king Darnell Tyms and queen Sherry Gunn were crowned Monday in McAfee Gymnasium. Eastern
sponsored its first homecoming in 1915 and more than half of the 500 alumni attended.
King, queen react to being crowned
By Jaime Lopez, Verge Editor
D
arnell Tyms thought
that the last place he would be was
walking on a stage in front of a
crowd of hundreds until he came
to Eastern.
Tyms, a junior communication studies major, won the title
of Homecoming King and said he
wants to encourage students to engage in Homecoming Week.
Tyms was automatically nominated last year when he won the
Black Student Union’s “Essence of
a Man” contest in Fall 2011, and
that is the organization he represented during the race for king.
Tyms said winning came across
as a surprise because all of the candidates were qualified to wear the
crown.
“All of these men are active on
campus, and they know how to express themselves very well,” Tyms
said.
The Friday before the week of
the competition, Tyms took to
Twitter and tweeted at every hour
to remind voters about elections
for king and queen.
Before the competition, Tyms
said he was too busy campaigning
to let his nerves get to him.
While the candidates were presented to the crowd of fans, Tyms
said he began to replay his college
career in his head and questioned
if he had done enough to earn the
title of king.
“It was like an out of body experience. You begin to ask yourself, ‘Have I done enough? Did
they value me enough?’” he said.
Tyms said the roar of the crowd
humbled him.
“I felt surrounded by love,”
Tyms said.
He said he plans on using his
platform to encourage other minority students to participate in
organizations on campus.
“The competition has nothing to do with race, but I think it
helps members in my race remember that your race doesn’t hold
you back,” Tyms said. “You can do
anything as long as you put your
best foot forward.”
Now that he has the crown,
Tyms said he wants to encourage
other students to participate in all
of the homecoming events.
T h o u g h Ty m s s a i d b e c o ming Homecoming King is a major
stepping-stone in his college career, he said he plans to do more
to remain active on campus and
encourage students to engage with
university organizations.
After graduating, Tyms said he
looks forward to attending graduate school at either Purdue University or the University of Florida.
He said he would love to work
with student programs at a university or pursue a career as an actor.
said. “I repeated to myself, ‘Don’t
fall down!’”
When her name was called,
Gunn said she had to hold back
her tears, and that winning was a
surprise.
“Most of my life I was a tomboy, even during my freshman and
sophomore years of college,” Gunn
said.
Gunn said when she won the
crown she thought about the
transformation she has made in
her life.
Gunn said the crown is a symbol of her role as a leader on campus, something she takes seriously.
“People look up to you on this
campus when you become queen,
and you have to be active both inside and outside the community,”
Gunn said.
Gunn said she waves at students
when she walks around on campus and feels this can better a per-
son’s day.
Gunn said becoming Homecoming Queen is a major accomplishment in her senior year. She
said it feels like her college career
has come full circle with this win.
“I’ve been successful academically and socially; this was another
one of my goals,” Gunn said.
After graduating from Eastern,
Gunn plans on attending graduate
school at either here or at Illinois
State University and wants to become a counselor or social worker.
When she got home from the
competition, Gunn said her Facebook page blew up with compliments and acknowledgements
from friends and family; she
thanked all of them individually.
“I really did appreciate them
and the voters,” Gunn said.
Queen's reaction
G
rowing up, Sherry
Gunn was a tomboy and never
fathomed the idea of entering a
beauty pageant.
But Gunn, a senior family and
consumer sciences major and
member of Sigma Gamma Rho
sorority, said everything changed
when she competed in the "Miss
Bl a c k a n d G o l d p a g e a n t " i n
Spring 2011, which she won.
She said the competition
pushed her to continue participating in beauty pageants.
While the candidates for
Homecoming Queen were announced, Gunn said she was worried about tripping when climbing up to the stage of the McAfee
Gymnasium.
“I kept thinking about that
moment in ‘Miss Congeniality,’
you know, when she falls,” Gunn
Jaime Lopez can be reached
at 581-2812 or [email protected].
10.12.2012
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