Who played the first Homecoming Game in football? The NCAA, Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy! will tell you that Missouri is credited with inviting alumni back in 1911 and giving the event its name. But Baylor in 1909 and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1910 both claim they had Homecoming-like events featuring a mixture of football games, visiting alumni and bands. Illinois has held Homecoming every year except in 1918.
About the same era, Rutgers held a similar event called "Alumni Day." Alumni would return to the school but it was a winter or spring sport that brought everyone back. On November 17, 1923, Rutgers complemented its annual winter Alumni Day with an autumn Alumni Day football game that saw Rutgers shut out Boston University 61-0 on Neilson Field.
The first game Rutgers called “Homecoming” was November 1, 1930. Rutgers lost to Holy Cross 32-20 before 8,000 at Neilson Field. Over 700 alumni returned to the school that had a total student body of 1,293 at the time. The November 4, 1930 Targum reported about the first Homecoming Game, “… while a few years ago football games were covered by less than 10 correspondents, more than 50 men worked the press box along with 12 telegraph operators.” English Professor Earl Reed Silvers who also doubled as director of public information, “…attributed the growth, both sports and news events, to the work of Pi Gamma, honorary journalistic society.”
About the same era, Rutgers held a similar event called "Alumni Day." Alumni would return to the school but it was a winter or spring sport that brought everyone back. On November 17, 1923, Rutgers complemented its annual winter Alumni Day with an autumn Alumni Day football game that saw Rutgers shut out Boston University 61-0 on Neilson Field.
The first game Rutgers called “Homecoming” was November 1, 1930. Rutgers lost to Holy Cross 32-20 before 8,000 at Neilson Field. Over 700 alumni returned to the school that had a total student body of 1,293 at the time. The November 4, 1930 Targum reported about the first Homecoming Game, “… while a few years ago football games were covered by less than 10 correspondents, more than 50 men worked the press box along with 12 telegraph operators.” English Professor Earl Reed Silvers who also doubled as director of public information, “…attributed the growth, both sports and news events, to the work of Pi Gamma, honorary journalistic society.”
