So I have been recently browsing Wikipedia and stumbled across it's homecoming page. I soon realized that it claims that the University of Illinois is the originator of homecoming. If I recall from previous homecoming games NIU has claimed that they originated the American homecoming. Perhaps this may be up to dispute. If anyone has any information on this subject that could be cited on the Wikipedia page that would be great. I feel that the Northern Illinois University deserves some credit in the Homecoming tradition.

Here is the wikipedia link

Homecoming Link

Why is that?

I've never heard NIU claim they invented Homecoming or were one of the first to celebrate it or anything like that.

There are many conflicting reports. Michigan's history of homecoming goes back the farthest (somewhere in the 1800s), but it's hard to tell when they actually started using the term "homecoming." It may have been applied somewhere along the line to their annual alumni game. If you go by the actual use of the term "homecoming," NIU has been playing Homecoming games longer than Illinois. There is a newspaper reference to the "Home-Coming" game in 1906. NIU, like Michigan, originally played homecoming games against alumni teams. In 1908, Illinois started their homecoming tradition playing games against what we would call traditional opponents.

So, in summary:
Michigan has the oldest tradition of playing annual alumni games, but might not have used the term until later.
NIU has the oldest going by an actual reference to the term "homecoming."
Illinois has the oldest tradition playing non-alumni teams.

I tried putting this into an NIUwiki once, but some Illinois fan kept erasing it based on the fact that ours was against alumni.

Missouri used to claim to have the oldest Homecoming tradition, but the date they cited was later than Michigan, Illinois and NIU.

Did a quick search to confirm my NIU date and found that NIU actually played an informal homecoming game in 1903. The first formal game was 1906, along with the first mention of "homecoming." The first 11 contests were against alumni teams.
http://niuhuskies.cstv.com/genrel/092406aaa.html

Quote:The 100th NIU Homecoming Game is the oldest such celebration among the National Collegiate Athletic Association institutions in the state and one of the most established such traditions in the Midwest. Its origin dates back to a Huskie alumni football game on October 10, 1903, when the Northern Illinois State Normal School varsity blanked the alums, 6-0. The school's first formal Homecoming happened on the weekend of October 12-13, 1906. On the NIU campus, the term "Homecoming" first appeared in the October, 1906, issue of the then monthly student newspaper. The First 11 Northern Illinois Homecoming football games were played against alumni opposition.

Haha this topic used to get the old AD Korcek in an uproar!!! Every year someone in the press box during homecoming would bring this up and he'd go off on a 10 minute rant about how Illinois always says that they had the first homecoming. NIU has the oldest homecoming in the state of Illinois, and as mentioned earlier, I believe Michigan has the oldest.

(01-15-2009 08:53 PM)NIUtrav09 Wrote:  Why is that?

I've never heard NIU claim they invented Homecoming or were one of the first to celebrate it or anything like that.

We didn't invent it but we have one of the oldest Homecoming traditions in the nation. Even older than Illinois.

Well someone should update that on Wikipedia!

Sometimes the simplest things aren't.

Seems more like a matter of semantics and splitting hairs.

There apparently is room for all three separate and legit claims to originating "homecoming" games.

This article was written this year by Northern Star's Andrea Bradley... one of best reporters northern star has ever had IMO.

http://www.northernstar.info/article.php?id=4827

Mentions how we actually had it before U of I, but how they always claim that they invented homecoming.. Sounds like something they would say.

Who knows where it started, it could have been here, but seems strange that we would have forgot about it. Apparently our first homecoming was 7 years before theirs though, just ours (according to them) wasn't REAL because we were playing ourselves in football rather than a conference game.

Quote:NIU among first Illinois schools to have Homecoming

By ANDREA BRADLEY

NIU has been living in the shadow of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for years.

The Fighting Illini have a larger budget, bigger buildings and a popular football team that usually blanks out Huskie athletic news.

However, when it comes to Homecoming, Illinois takes its seat seven years after NIU.

Though Illinois claimed to be the father of Homecoming with its first game documented in 1910, the school’s information was skewed.

“No one knows who invented Homecoming,” said Mike Korcek, sports information director emeritus at NIU. “But our first Homecoming was in 1903. I might not be a prize-winning news reporter, but obviously there’s something wrong when you see 1903 and 1910 and Illinois is claiming to be first.”

According to Korcek, the Fighting Illini no longer claim the first Homecoming in their football media guide. After contacting the school and settling on specific dates of past games, Illinois’ sports information director Kent Brown removed the claim.

The allegation made the school look foolish, as Korcek had done his research and found five teams in the Midwest alone that recorded earlier Homecomings. More surprisingly, three of the five were in Illinois’ Big Ten conference.

Even more frustrating to Korcek was when an Illinois representative tried to discredit the Huskie Homecoming tradition. Though NIU’s Homecoming dates back to Oct. 10, 1903, the school’s first 11 games were played against the alumni.

“Northern was a much smaller school than the U of I, so we held alumni games,” Korcek said. “They are trying to discredit those games, but we are counting Homecomings, not who we played.”

If this is true, NIU has the longest current Homecoming tradition in the state, ahead of both U of I and Northwestern.

“There’s only three major schools, according to college football, in the state,” Korcek said. “Northwestern, Illinois, and us. And we have the first among those schools, so NIU deserves some credit.”

According to the NIU 2004 football media guide, the term “Homecoming” first appeared at NIU in the October 1906 edition of the Northern Illinois (now the Northern Star).

The term was used on the Huskie campus before the Fighting Illini held their inaugural game, said Korcek.

“I just don’t understand,” said Korcek. “With the sophistication and the number of people that work at the NCAA, you would think that someone would make a definitive answer.”

Korcek said that he means no disrespect for Illinois or for the NCAA, and understands that the school was just showing pride in a school tradition. But he said that if coaches and statisticians would communicate on a higher level, an answer could be found.

No one knows who invented the tradition, but thanks to Korcek, Illinois’ false claims are now understood.

“The tradition of Homecoming is unique at NIU,” Korcek said. “We are one of the firsts, but not many people on the campus know that.”