Homecoming #99

This Saturday, Illinois will take the field against the Spartans of Michigan State to battle in the Illini's 99th edition of the homecoming game.
The game has been sold out for a couple of weeks now and with Friday and Sunday calling for rain, Illini fans can only knock on wood that the forecast of party cloudy holds up. Either way I expect this to be a key game for Ron Zook's team. We will look at the game later today, but for now let's take a look at the Illinois Homecoming tradition.

The wording is a little bit confusing right? We are "one of" the first to hold the event, but the school who can really claim the first homecoming is up in the air. It can be concluded pretty solidly that Illinois is in the first five schools to celebrate the event. Michigan fans will tell you that they started inviting alumni back to campus for games in 1897, but the first documented use of the word "homecoming" is dated in 1916. Northern Illinois follows in the Wolverine footsteps, inviting alumni back since 1906, but first calling it homecoming in 1911. Indiana held an alumni "Gala Day" in 1909 and changed the name to homecoming the following year. Baylor University technically held the first official homecoming in 1909, but then waited six years to repeat the event. That brings us to Illinois. According to the Illinois DIA, "The University of Illinois boasts being one of the first universities to celebrate Homecoming, a tradition on almost every college campus. It was conceived in 1909 by students C.F. Williams and W. Elmer Ekblaw, members of the Shield and Trident senior society. They joined with another society, Phoenix, to organize the three-day event. The first homecoming celebrated on Illinois’ campus was on Oct. 15, 1910, which the Illini won 3-0 over Big Ten rival Chicago."

According to original Illinois homecoming organizer C.F. Williams, "The homecoming movement spread like wildfire in the years after 1910. Within the next several years, many other universities – Wisconsin and Missouri in 1911, Arizona in 1914, to name a few – launched their own homecomings." In 1930, Williams noted that “virtually every college in the land has since become vitally interested in Homecomings of one kind or another.” Williams described the homecoming idea as having been “contagious.”

I love homecoming because I think it embodies what college football is all about. People often characterize players as athletes, and forget that they are student athletes. NCAA football isn't like basketball where you are forced on campus for a year and then you can flee for the NBA. There are plenty of stories about basketball players taking classes for half a year, then blowing of the second semester because they are headed for big money in a few months. In football, the rule that you must be 3 years removed from high school to get drafted forces a player to be more of a part of the university. Players visit schools and they decide which one is the best for them over the next minimum of three years instead of who can get you to the NBA the fastest. I know basketball is an event at any school, but nothing compares to 60,000+ people meeting hours before a game to celebrate the school's unity. Fans and former players are able to come back and relive memories of younger times. There is something very youthful about a tailgate of adults all wearing the same color and spelling the word Illini in three letter cheers. I know a lot of people who will tailgate and have no tickets to the game, I have never seen that in basketball. Don't get me wrong, I love Illini Bball, but there is something about a homecoming game that is much more than football.

For additional information, visit the Illinois Alumni History Page.