And the orange and blue lighting is for real an Illini tribute. Illinois alum Mark Thomas is retiring from his position as the Western New York regional director of New York State Parks, and was involved in the installation of the LED lights that light up the falls each night.
From the U of I Facebook page:
Among his many accomplishments, Mark led a $70 million improvement project at Niagara Falls—which included installing the new LED lights that adorned the falls in Illini colors this week. Congratulations to Mark on a wonderful career!