From Missouri to Baylor, where did the custom of homecoming

• Kyle Bonagura, ESPN

  • Staff WriterOct 16, 2024, 07:00 AM ET Close Covers college football.Joined ESPN in 2014. Participated In Washington State University.STANDING ALONE IN the middle of the grassy Francis Quadrangle at the

University of Missouri are 6 ionic-style columns. They are the last remaining functions from the school’s very first building, built in 1840, and when photographed with the domed, red-brick Jesse Hall in the background, it produces an inviting postcard.During campus tours, it’s on The Quad where potential students have long been provided

a crash course on university tradition.”There were definitely 2 things that we struck on every trip,”said broadcaster Kevin Gehl, a Missouri alum and previous homecoming king, who guided campus tours as an undergraduate student from 2006 to 2009.” Getting the history incorporated right now was always so important due to the fact that we could state,’ Listen, we have the first and finest journalism school worldwide and the earliest continuous homecoming. ‘”Now, in some cases that would get reduced to,’Well, we have actually got the oldest homecoming.’

“For lots of Missouri alums, the concept the school is the birthplace of modern homecoming– a tradition commemorated at almost every high school and college in the country– acts as a major source of pride.It all returns to 1911. That’s when football coach and athletic director Chester Brewer required

alumni to “come

home”to see the Tigers play Kansas in Columbia, starting a homecoming tradition on campus that over a century later on stays, without concern, one of the biggest, most treasured events of its kind. As late as the 1930s, after homecoming had become a typical incident throughout the nation, Maker would perpetuate the idea Missouri started everything, and for years the urban myth grew.But as Mizzou’s origin story spread, so did competing claims. From Illinois to Michigan to Texas and beyond, there are varying tales of how homecoming happened. After ending up being conscious of this exceptionally low-stakes debate ahead of Missouri’s homecoming game Saturday against Auburn, ESPN set out to answer what looked like an easy concern: Where did the custom of homecoming begin?IN EARLY 1910, 2 University of Illinois students rested on the actions of what was then the school’s YMCA. It exists, the story goes, that they first talked about the concept for an occasion to bring alumni back to

campus.” They wished to do it in the fall because they believed centering it around a football game would be a good anchor to get individuals to come back,”said Ryan Ross, the director of history and customs programs for the Illinois Alumni Association.” They likewise wished to have other events that people might take part in. The university had been having alumni reunions and class reunions– that sort of thing– for a very long time therefore what they wanted to do was move those reunions to the fall.”One of the students, W. Elmer Ekblaw, was a press reporter for the trainee paper, the Daily Illini, and used the platform to promote for the concept during the spring. It quickly gained support and by May, a main homecoming day was arranged for October, when the football team would host competing Chicago, coached by the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg.Editor’s Picks 2 Related In addition to the football game, there would be a baseball game, a track fulfill and other reunion events for alumni that planned to participate in. The school’s athletic association included 5,000 short-term seats to the football arena to accommodate an approximated crowd of 12,000, which saw the Illini win 3-0.

Illinois ‘first homecoming was celebrated as an overwhelming success, with the Daily Illini predicting other schools would follow the school’s lead.” The echoes of the occasions of this great home-coming will be heard as long as the University endures, for it is now almost a certainty that it will be adopted as a permanent annual organization the like of which no other University can boast, “the paper wrote.” Illinois may well pride itself on being the producer of the plan for drawing home the alumni, a strategy which will certainly be embraced normally.”The post was prophetic in that homecoming was extensively embraced and has actually been held at Illinois every year because, with the exception of 1918, due to the influenza epidemic. It also likely played a role in developing prevalent belief this was where the across the country tradition was born.”For more than a century, there’s been this concept that we developed homecoming and this concept has been given from generation to generation and simply sort of multiplied,”Ross stated.”Alumni from here will get into arguments with people from other universities who claim they developed homecoming. ” Illinois’homecoming custom began in 1910 when it beat Chicago, 3-0. University of Illinois Alumni Association It was of such value at Illinois that in 2005, college student John Franch was commissioned to conduct a research study job, spent for by the University Archives Student Life and Culture Archival Program, to determine who created homecoming.”I was employed to look into the matter and ideally settle it at last,”Franch told ESPN in an email.”Needless to say

, the answer to the concern proved to be a complex one.”It’s made complex due to the fact that the principle of alumni going back to school to watch football wasn’t something that required to be created. It occurred naturally. And numerous schools had alumni events that were planned around–

or simply happened to accompany– football games or other athletic events. These were common in the Ivy League during the late 1800s. Franch’s report laid out how Michigan hosted what it described as”Alumni Games”starting in 1897. The current football team would play an alumni team, and there were secondary occasions developed to bring alumni together. In 1900, the format changed and the team played against Purdue in the designated alumni game. The similarities to homecoming existed, but Franch found that Michigan didn’t start using the actual phrase– homecoming– till it was

printed on the cover of a football program in 1947. Northern Illinois, then referred to as Northern Illinois State Typical School, traces its homecoming roots to 1906. That’s when the term initially appeared in the school paper, but the homecoming football game, like how things started at Michigan, was played against an alumni team until 1914, when it played Wheaton College. Today, NIU will commemorate its homecoming, in what has been marketed as its 117th all time.These examples raise concerns about semantics. Should Michigan get credit for homecoming if it didn’t call it homecoming? Ought to NIU get credit if its early variations were missing out on a vital part– a genuine challenger– of what the custom is now?It’s all up for debate.What’s not in disagreement, nevertheless, is that in 1909 Baylor hosted a” Home-Coming”weekend that included all the components that remain important today. It took months of preparation and included a pep rally, a bonfire, a parade and, obviously, a football game, in which Baylor beat TCU, 6-3. If history wants to keep in mind the very first, main homecoming game in college football, all the proof recommends this was it.An 82-page university file was released in January 1910 and went into terrific information to memorialize whatever that

occurred.

“The purpose of the Home-Coming was to provide an opportunity for the cheerful conference of former student good friends, an event when old classmates might again feel the warm hand-clasp of their fellows, remember old memories and associations, and capture the Baylor spirit once again,” it said.From that point of view, not much has changed. Baylor holds the first homecoming game against TCU in 1909. Courtesy of the University Archive, Baylor University Libraries, Baylor University Bulletin, vol. XIII, no. 1, January 1910.”Simply thinking of the ways that we make significance of things and the significance of sports and our culture and the events that take place, “stated Dr. Elizabeth Rivera, the university archivist and associate librarian at Baylor.”It’s recorded here that human nature doesn’t alter in time, and they

were doing the very same things that we still do today for

meaning-making and traditions that mean so much to people. “Amongst the guests was the school’s earliest living graduate at the time, a man called Oscar Leland, who was born in 1826, and, notably,

got here in an automobile.Baylor wouldn’t host another homecoming until 1915– something Rivera said was most likely due to the cost of such a massive occasion– and it didn’t become an annual tradition up until the 1930s. So while Baylor likely is worthy of credit for being initially, it didn’t have as much of an influence on the early development of the custom as other places.For Ross, the presence of Baylor’s homecoming in 1909 works as clear proof that Illinois, in 1910, was not

initially, however he has actually found that realities have not gotten in the way of a good story.”There’s still individuals every year who state, ‘Illinois created homecoming,’and you have to remedy them. You can carefully correct them or if it’s a leading level administrator saying it, you just kind of let it go,”Ross stated. “However it takes place all the time. What we have actually sort of come down on is Illinois didn’t develop homecoming, however I believe we have had the longest continuous homecoming celebration with the intent of it being a yearly event.

“TODD MCCUBBIN, THE executive director of the Mizzou Alumni Association, isn’t precisely sure how Missouri’s claim to have come from homecoming grew so strong throughout the years.”We’re extremely fortunate to have the

sort of buy-in that we have from our community, from our students, from our alumni around this tradition,”he stated.”Part of that does come from the reality that at some point we were offered credit at one time for being the first in the nation.”So, I think individuals type of purchased into that history and tradition of it. And after that, honestly, as soon as you get past that, it needs to be more about– they’re not necessarily too worried about who’s first, we feel in one’s bones we do homecoming truly well.” Even this week, there were at least two brand-new Reddit posts that share a quote from Maker, showing Missouri created homecoming. They connect back to a short article originally

published by MIZZOU publication in 2011, that wades into the history.”For many years, third-party ammunition has fueled arguments about which university can be credited with starting homecoming,” the articles specified.” Recognition from Jeopardy! and Unimportant Pursuit is typically touted as supporting evidence by Mizzou fans.”As part of this fact-finding objective, ESPN reached out to”Jeopardy!”for the function of sharing the clue and response associating with Missouri’s homecoming claim, however the workout didn’t substantiate what was composed in 2011. In 2021, a$400 clue read: “An early variation of this tradition was in Nov. 1911 when the U. of Missouri’s athletic director had alumni visit for the Kansas game. “The appropriate response: What is homecoming?But in a statement to ESPN, Jeopardy! co-head writer Billy Wisse said:”Sorry to say

that Michele Loud [the show’s other co-head author] and I looked all sort of ways, however we see absolutely no Jeopardy! hint ever about Missouri and homecoming besides the one from 2021.”What’s indisputable is that Missouri’s homecoming celebration is amongst the best in the country. The game is always held on among the last three weekends of October and is preceded by a parade, skill competition, spirit rally and other alumni occasions. There are acts of service with a food drive and what McCubbin said is one of the largest blood drives in the country.RECORD=BROKEN We are so grateful to our Mizzou neighborhood for coming together to beat in 2015’s contribution overall with 4,959 units of blood. Thank you to every donor, volunteer and the @RedCrossMO for their assistance in conserving 14,877 possible lives. #LeadingtheLegacy pic.twitter.com/IdcAH4eQ2q!.?.!— Mizzou Homecoming( @MU_Homecoming)October 11, 2024″It’s the most significant weekend of the year in Columbia, by far,”he stated. “Whatever else fades in comparison.”When Missouri moved to the SEC from the Huge 12 in 2012, homecoming didn’t alter much,

however it resulted in one memorable exchange McCubbin had with a coworker at another school, who questioned why the Tigers had actually arranged their school as the homecoming opponent.”I’m like, ‘So what?'”McCubbin stated.” And he says, ‘Well, in the SEC it’s got this type of undertone that [homecoming is] where you sort of schedule the weaker challenger.”That scheduling philosophy reaches far beyond

the SEC, but McCubbin explained that at Missouri, that’s not part of the thinking.And with over a century’s worth of homecoming history, during which Mizzou was instrumental in forming an American tradition, who is it for another school to suggest how it is run?Even if, technically, Missouri wasn’t where everything started.