Homecoming: How a Campus Idea Became a Midwest Playbook

This week marks 115 years since the first verifiable homecoming and of course we’re writing about it on our pages… because the tradition was born right here in the Midwest.

The story starts in the spring of 1910 at the University of Illinois. Two seniors, Walter Elmer “Ek” Ekblaw and Clarence Foss “Dab” Williams, were about to graduate and feeling the tug of legacy. “I’d like to do something really big for the old school before I leave,” one said, according to the school’s alumni association. Their idea wasn’t just a party or a parade, it was a designated week during the academic calendar when alumni returned while class was in session. This way, students and grads could actually meet, mentor, and build relationships. More than mere nostalgia, the intention appeared to be network effects. Or whatever they called it in the earliest part of the 20th century.

“The first annual homecoming”, as named in the official program, took place between October 14-15, 1910. A baseball game. Reunions. A football matchup against Chicago where the program notes shouted “Hang it on Chicago.” There was even a song written for the occasion. It was spectacle, yes. Merriam-Webster may define it as an “annual celebration for alumni,” but homecoming’s true invention wasn’t the tailgate; it was the bridge between generations. 

From Rivalries to Returns on Place

When people think “homecoming,” they often think of rivalries. Stadium lights, pep bands, the old foe in town. But the real work often happens off the field. Alumni return to familiar sidewalks and favorite diners. Donors meet coaches. Founders bump into former professors. In the NIL era, boosters pledge, introductions are made, and undoubtedly some deals are made.

However not many places - or professional communities for that matter - have managed to scale that energy into a region-level force. But Detroit did.

In 2013 - the same year that the biggest city in Michigan entered the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history - Crain’s launched Detroit Homecoming, a public-private initiative to invite accomplished Detroiters back, reconnect them to the city’s momentum, and catalyze reinvestment. It made sense for Crain’s to lead: the company was founded a year after Illinois’ first homecoming and is headquartered in Detroit, with a footprint across Chicago, New York, and Cleveland.

“It was and still is an initiative that is a public-private partnership between Crain’s Detroit Business and many corporate and philanthropic partners, like the Downtown Detroit Partnership, General Motors, the ROCK family of companies, and more” Director of Detroit Homecoming, Clare Pfeiifer told us. “They are all aligned with the goal to spark reinvestment in the city. Other cities are welcome to jump on the idea and start their own programs!”

The headline numbers they cite are impressive: over a billion dollars tied, directly or indirectly, to connections made around the event. They’ve even mapped where alumni-driven dollars land and surveyed participants to track outcomes. In other words, they brought the receipts.

Other Takes on the Homecoming Theme

Milwaukee has its own flavor. Harley-Davidson’s homecoming celebrates “music, moto-culture, and their hometown of Milwaukee,” designed as a family-friendly magnet for riders and fans from around the world. Different sector, same principle: convene your diaspora around identity and place, and watch the flywheel turn.

Baltimore, although not located in the Midwest, appears to have been inspired by Detroit’s model, launched its homecoming in 2017 “to drive investment in Baltimore by fostering meaningful collaborations between former Baltimoreans and the city’s changemakers,” according to their site. The figures they quote, $50 million of investment over those years, further demonstrate the impressive impact seen in Detroit. 

The lesson isn’t that every city should copy-paste a template. It’s that belonging might just be an under-utilized input to further economic development, and when you design for it, real-world returns can actually follow.

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The original homecoming wasn’t just school spirit; it was social infrastructure.

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Why This Story Belongs Here

Our colleagues at Midwest House have spent a decade convening Midwesterners - on the ground at SXSW and elsewhere across the country - to tell a simple truth: our region’s edge is community at scale. The original homecoming wasn’t just school spirit; it was social infrastructure. It’s the same logic behind what we do: create reasons for people to come together, surface the work worth backing, and keep the flywheel spinning long after the banners come down.

That's also why this Homecoming week of stories is being presented by the Midwest House Summit, taking place December 3-4 this year in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Get your tickets here and use the term "OPE2025" to get 10% off.

Homecoming might be a ritual for some. It’s also a mechanism: pride → presence → participation → investment. The Midwest has always known that belonging isn’t soft; it’s a strategy.

So, each year on the anniversary of that first Illinois homecoming, we’ll mark the week by telling stories of people who left, learned, and chose to invest here - financially, emotionally, and often by dedicating their careers.

This week we’ll share the following stories:

- Founder Story: Ben Kvalo. From dream roles at 2K Games and Netflix to building Midwest Games in Wisconsin and why he came home to change how games are made.

- Alumni Builders. A breakdown of startups founded by university alumni across the Midwest, and the patterns we see of those that left and those that stayed.

- The O.H.I.O Fund. How and why a state-anchored capital model is helping founders build in Ohio without chasing coastal dollars.

- The Midwest House Origin Story. A look back at a decade of showing up - and why a project born at SXSW is “coming home” to for the first time.

Which brings us back to the creators of this tradition. Where did they end up? As far as we can tell, Ekblaw became a botanist, with research cited on his explorations in Greenland and notes that suggest he was often in demand “In Massechussets”. Williams appears to have stayed closer to home, spending years in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Either way, that duality - go far and achieve but when you do come home, make sure you give back - may as well be a playbook for our region. Homecoming started as a campus idea. A century later, it may well be a regional strategy hiding in plain sight. We’re here to tell those stories, and to help write the next ones.