Excitement has been difficult to come by for Husky fans this football season.

However, Homecoming Saturday makes this match-up versus Oregon State a little bit more special than the rest.

Derek Belt, a UW student from 2000-2004, knows the feeling.

“Homecoming has a different feel to it because everyone comes together for the football game,” Belt said. “But once you get everyone together, the memories just start flowing.”

For students, the game tomorrow is a chance to show school pride, and for alumni, it is a day to come back home and revel in the memories of their college years.

Husky alumnus and current ESPN.com writer Jim Caple, said “Homecoming is where the past and the present come together and everybody feels younger … well, maybe not the students, but the alumni feel like they’re in college again.”

It is a chance for the alumni to remember what it was like to wake up Saturday morning, and get pumped up for the game later that day. There is a certain thrill to walk towards Husky Stadium alongside their friends, into the mass of people heading the same direction and to stand in the student section for hours, losing their voice while cheering on the Huskies.

“When I was a student, I loved the whole scene with all of my friends on gameday,” said Paul Malakoff, a UW student from 1954-1958 and a season ticket holder for the last 50 years.

For alumni, it is obvious that some of their fondest memories from the college days came from Saturdays in the fall, which is why Malakoff — despite being a student when the teams were, as he put it, “between awful and medium awful” — sacrificed holidays in exchange for attending the home games.

“I worked on the weekends when I went to school, so I worked out a deal with a friend of mine to work for me on Saturday home games. In return, I would work for him on Easter, Thanksgiving and other holidays,” Malakoff reflects.

Other alumni had memories of much different teams, with more on field success.

Any alumnis who attended the University of Washington between 1960 and 2003 had a pretty good chance of having seen this success, considering the Huskies had only five losing seasons in those 43 years.

For Belt, who is now communications and media relations specialist for the Alumni Association, the differences between his years in college and this season are enormous. Although he saw the beginnings of the crumbling football program when Keith Gilbertson replaced Rick Neuheisel in 2003, he also saw the Huskies go to three bowl games.

“I made it a point to go to every bowl game the Huskies played in,” Belt said, meaning he was there when the Huskies won the Rose Bowl his freshman year, went to the Holiday Bowl his sophomore year and the Sun Bowl his junior year.

The alumnus who saw arguably the best years of Husky football though, is Caple, who witnessed the Huskies dominate when he was a student from 1980-1985. During that time span, the UW had an .800 win percentage, so the last few years have been somewhat of a shock.

“We would’ve gone to the Rose Bowl every year if it weren’t for Washington State in 1983 and ’84,” Caple said. “So I never thought we would be this bad.”

While the Huskies’ record this year may not be what anybody expected or wanted, a vast majority of alumni still have hope for the future.

“Yes it’s disappointing, but you just know it won’t stay this way for long,” Belt said. “We’ll be back and everyone will appreciate it that much more.”

The spirit of Homecoming goes beyond the record of the football team, especially now that UW alumna, Governor Christine Gregoire has taken it one step further.

“I urge all citizens to don purple and gold in honor of this world-class institution,” Gregoire said, following a proclamation making Friday “purple and gold day” across the state of Washington.

However, for alumni like Caple, the experience of Homecoming is all about the game on Saturday.

“The students should be walking across campus toward Husky Stadium, kicking the fall leaves as they walk, anticipating the game and the party after the game,” Caple said.

Although alumni would like to see the Huskies better than they are now, it isn’t the success of the team which brings back them back for Homecoming. Rather, it is a love for the game that transcends all.

It is for this reason someone like Malakoff has had season tickets for 50 years.

“Win or lose, I’m still going to be there for every game.”

Reach reporter Scott Eisen at sports@dailyuw.com.