Homecoming at the University of Missouri-Columbia

The 1911 University of Missouri football game against the University of Kansas began an enduring Tiger tradition. Before that year, the MU versus KU game had always been played in Kansas City. The 1911 season, however, saw a change in conference regulations. All intercollegiate football games were required to be played on campus. Fearing that game attendance would be low, the new MU coach, C. L. Brewer, appealed with great success for the "Old Grads" to "Come Back Home" to boost attendance and help dedicate MU's new football field. MU fans responded, swelling the crowd at Rollins Field in Columbia to more than ten thousand. Once there, they demonstrated their support vocally, cheering the Tigers on to a hard-fought, 3-3 tie with KU. The "home coming" celebration found immediate favor as a time to celebrate and reminisce.

Until the 1920s, though, Homecoming against Kansas was only celebrated on alternate Thanksgivings, when the Tigers hosted the JayHawks at MU. Though homecoming was canceled in 1918, when an influenza epidemic was raging, and the location was changed in 1944 to save gasoline for the war effort, this Tiger tradition continues to thrive today. Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska have become MU's favorite homecoming rivals. Ten thousand fans attended the University of Missouri's homecoming game in 1911, thirty-two thousand came in 1948, and in 1997, over 48,000 watched MU beat Texas 37-29.

This is a collection of photographs showing the beginnings of the homecoming tradition at the University of Missouri-Columbia and how it has evolved over time. It is taken from the exhibit created by the staff of the Archives of the University of Missouri-Columbia. The exhibit can be viewed at http://muarchives.missouri.edu/homecomdisp.html