semi-professional athletes, may belong to them. The city's main football club, usually known as "Académica" or "Briosa", is in formal terms an autonomous organism of the AAC and is called AAC-OAF, but in practical terms it is an independent club, only loosely connected to its mother institution. It is a relatively important team, especially as regards to its huge number of followers nationwide, and plays in the top Portuguese football leagues, having been the first winner in history of the Portuguese Football Cup, in 1939. Recepção ao Caloiro In Portugal, the homecoming is known as Recepção ao Caloiro (The Freshman's Reception). It includes numerous events and traditions born in the 19th century in the University of Coimbra. It is defined as a welcome to the new students, the freshmen (caloiros), and takes place at the beginning of the academic year in Portuguese university towns. In every classic public university of Portugal the homecoming is celebrated yearly. The events are followed in varying degrees by other less traditional or smaller institutions. A street parade of students, concerts, and sports events are always organized for the freshmen's reception. The street parade organized in several major Portuguese universities is known as Latada, and its name comes from the tradition of tying tin cans to the freshmen's legs (the word lata is tin can in Portuguese). History "The Freshman's Reception" (Recepção ao Caloiro, the Portuguese name for university homecoming) goes back to the 19th century when the law students of the University of Coimbra felt the need to express their joy at finishing the school year in as loud a way as possible, using everything at their disposal that would make noise, namely tin cans, which is the original root of "The Tin Can Parade". Coimbra In Coimbra, where the oldest Portuguese university was founded in the Middle Ages, the Recepção ao Caloiro (The Freshman's Reception) week, includes the Festa das Latas (The Tin Can Festival). The Tin Can Festival's name comes from the tradition of tying tin cans to the freshmen's legs for the parade (The Tin Can Parade) which is known as Latada. The events are organized by the students' union of the University of Coimbra, the Associação Académica de Coimbra, and takes place during the fall. It is an important part of the praxe académica (student praxis) in Coimbra, followed by the city population as an ancient cultural manifestation and local