The tradition of annual college alumni games started with schools inviting former students back to the campus to attend a football game and parade, mix and mingle with new generation and continue to show support for the athletic program. Missouri likes to claim the first such event, in 1911, but about a dozen others insist they were first.
However it started, change came early as schools with football programs began inviting back former players for a Homecoming game, while others, without football, asked alumni to get personally involved, suiting up against and taking on the varsity in a roll out for the new season.