I heard UIUC had it too in the 90's. Can anyone confirm?

I can confirm. I started grad school in physics there in 1992. The weekly department colloquium was on Thursday afternoon, just after the latest Onion came out. It was not uncommon to see a few people reading it during the talk.

Yes.

All the Big Ten schools that a founder who grew up in Indiana and Wisconsin cared about had it. Maybe even Ohio State. I’m not sure how far east it got back then.