NIU has been living in the shadow of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for years.

The Fighting Illini have a larger budget, bigger buildings and a popular football team that usually blanks out Huskie athletic news.

However, when it comes to Homecoming, Illinois takes its seat seven years after NIU.

Though Illinois claimed to be the father of Homecoming with its first game documented in 1910, the school’s information was skewed.

“No one knows who invented Homecoming,” said Mike Korcek, sports information director emeritus at NIU. “But our first Homecoming was in 1903. I might not be a prize-winning news reporter, but obviously there’s something wrong when you see 1903 and 1910 and Illinois is claiming to be first.”

According to Korcek, the Fighting Illini no longer claim the first Homecoming in their football media guide. After contacting the school and settling on specific dates of past games, Illinois’ sports information director Kent Brown removed the claim.

The allegation made the school look foolish, as Korcek had done his research and found five teams in the Midwest alone that recorded earlier Homecomings. More surprisingly, three of the five were in Illinois’ Big Ten conference.

Even more frustrating to Korcek was when an Illinois representative tried to discredit the Huskie Homecoming tradition. Though NIU’s Homecoming dates back to Oct. 10, 1903, the school’s first 11 games were played against the alumni.

“Northern was a much smaller school than the U of I, so we held alumni games,” Korcek said. “They are trying to discredit those games, but we are counting Homecomings, not who we played.”

If this is true, NIU has the longest current Homecoming tradition in the state, ahead of both U of I and Northwestern.

“There’s only three major schools, according to college football, in the state,” Korcek said. “Northwestern, Illinois, and us. And we have the first among those schools, so NIU deserves some credit.”

According to the NIU 2004 football media guide, the term “Homecoming” first appeared at NIU in the October 1906 edition of the Northern Illinois (now the Northern Star).

The term was used on the Huskie campus before the Fighting Illini held their inaugural game, said Korcek.

“I just don’t understand,” said Korcek. “With the sophistication and the number of people that work at the NCAA, you would think that someone would make a definitive answer.”

Korcek said that he means no disrespect for Illinois or for the NCAA, and understands that the school was just showing pride in a school tradition. But he said that if coaches and statisticians would communicate on a higher level, an answer could be found.

No one knows who invented the tradition, but thanks to Korcek, Illinois’ false claims are now understood.

“The tradition of Homecoming is unique at NIU,” Korcek said. “We are one of the firsts, but not many people on the campus know that.”