Homecoming. Football.

For many, the former would be meaningless without the latter. And you will find no dissenting opinion here.

No other college tradition compares to the annual homecoming football game. For the true gridiron enthusiast, it is Christmas and New Year’s rolled into one.

Even at NIU, where the football tradition pales in comparison to the Notre Dames, the Michigans and The Ohio States, the homecoming spirit carries with it a special magic.

In 80 homecomings, the Huskies have fashioned 47 victories, losing 23 times and tying 10 others. A .650 winning percentage well above the team’s overall winning percentage of .545.

Five years ago, in perhaps the most dramatic homecoming victory in NIU football history, the Huskies battled back from a 20-0 halftime deficit to beat Bowling Green State, 24-23. Vince Scott’s 27-yard field goal with 2:34 to go was the winning margin.

In 1973, it was All-American Mark Kellar rushing for 199 yards as the Huskies drubbed Ball State, NIU’s opponent again this year, 45-17. Kellar, a 6-foot-2, 226-pound fullback, broke the 3,000 yard mark for his career that day. He would end up with 1,719 yards rushing for the season as he finished his three-year Huskie career with 3,745 yards, a mark that still stands as the best in NIU history.

The Scotts and the Kellars have been replaced at NIU by names like Ivanic and Taylor, and Saturday this new breed of Huskies will try to leave their own marks in NIU history. Who knows, 10 years from now someone might write about the great homecoming game of 1988.