Becca Clay, senior speech pathology major from Salt Lake City, was crowned Homecoming queen at halftime during the Homecoming game on Saturday.

Clay was one of 10 women nominated to the Homecoming court this year by the ACU student body. Women are nominated based on their involvement on campus. Clay’s involvement on campus includes three years in ResLife, president of Zeta Rho, participating in a steering committee this year for international students and LYNAY.

While Clay was honored to receive the title of queen, she was more excited to get to see her father, Randy Clay who is a preacher in Utah. A group of ACU faculty, staff and members from the surrounding community worked together to buy Clay’s father a plane ticket to surprise Clay the Thursday before homecoming.

Gary McCaleb, vice president of the university’s office, said, “Word spread around and people thought, ‘Woudn’t it be cool if Randy could come back?'” Clay’s parents used to live in the Abilene area, making this a Homecoming event that was special for both Becca and her father.

Clay took advantage of every second that her father was in town, including while she was standing on the field with him waiting for the announcement of who won.

“I wasn’t really listening to what they were saying because my dad and I were talking,” Clay said.

She said she did not even know that she won until her dad told her that her name had just been announced.

“Seeing my dad was better than actually winning,” Clay said. “Seeing him so happy and proud of me was awesome,” Clay said.

Clay does not expect this title to change her influence on campus.

“To have influence you just need to be a person of integrity and be who God’s called you to be,” Clay said.

Clay is grateful of everyone who contributed to getting her dad here to Abilene.

“I have a lot of ACU angels looking out for me and taking care of me,” Clay said.