Written by Leanna Barcelona
With Homecoming week in full swing, it is worthwhile to take a trip back in time and see where the idea of “homecoming” at the University of Illinois came from and what it was like in its first years.
Clarence Fiss Williams and W. Elmer Ekblaw (who also wore the hat of botanist on the Crocker Land expedition), two Illinois seniors, came up with the idea of homecoming in the spring of 1910 while sitting on the steps of the old YMCA pondering how they could give back to their alma mater before they graduated.[1]
In the 1910-11 Student Handbook, the University introduces the event to engage student enthusiasm:
On October 14, 15, and 16 of 1910 the first annual University of Illinois Fall Home Coming will be held. This will be the biggest gathering of the sons and daughters of the University and their friends ever drawn together. The University requests, almost demands, that all her alumni and alumnae return for this event.[2]
