MARK two days in red on your cal- 

 endar, folks, Aug. 29 and 30. 

 These are the dates for the seventh an- 

 nual Illinois Farm Sports Festival to 

 be held on the University of Illinois 

 campus. 



Revived after a four year war lapse, 

 the Sports Festival, sponsored by the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association, Coun- 

 ty Farm and Home Bureaus, Univer- 

 sity of Illinois, Agricultural Extension 

 Service, WDZ, WMBD, WLS-Priirie 

 Farmer, and others cooperating, will 

 feature top competition this year. 

 County committees already are holding 



orchestra, will follow the evening pro- 

 gram. 



Farm Bureau members should see 

 good hard ball games at the Festival, 

 as 19 counties are playing this summer, 

 more teams than in any of the last 

 three pre-war years in which the hard 

 ball league operated. 



Interest in Softball will be high as 

 indicated by counties already in action. 

 Whiteside now has ten 4-H clubs play- 

 ing ball and has formed a Rural Youth 

 inter-county league with Ogle, Lee, 

 Carroll, Bureau, Henry and Whiteside 

 counties playing. Sangamon has 20 



a $1 room deposit is asked for each 

 person desiring a reservation. 



To compete in the Festival, con- 

 testants must be from Farm Bureau or 

 Home Bureau families, or 4-H clubs or 

 Rural Youth members, and at least 

 one-half of the participants in square 

 dance, folk dance, choral groups, 

 square dance bands and novelty bands, 

 must be from Farm Bureau or Home 

 Bureau families or 4-H or Rural Youth 

 members. 



In the folk festival, each county 

 may make one entry in each division 

 or subdivision. It is recommended, 







. 



contests to pick entrants for the state 

 contest. 



Champaign, DeKalb and Whiteside, 

 the three district winners of the 1941 

 Sports Festival in which 73 counties 

 and 3351 individuals competed, have 

 made plans to defend their champion- 

 ships, Otto Steffey, lAA board member, 

 Henderson county, chairman of the 

 Festival, reports. 



Competition will be keen in the 

 women's events — chair quoits, table 

 tennis, knot tying, shuffle board, clock 

 golf, dart throwing and horseshoes — 

 according to reports from Mrs. Emile 

 Rediger, Illinois Home Bureau Federa- 

 tion representative, Lexington, and 

 Miss Irene L. Brandt, home adviser, 

 Knox county, representative of Illinois 

 Home Advisers Association, both on 

 the state Sports Festival administration 

 committee. 



District winners of the Farm Bureau 

 Baseball League, around which the 

 Sports Festival was originally built, 

 will compete for the state champion- 

 ship on Friday, Aug. 30, second day 

 of the Festival. 



The Thursday evening Aug. 29 pro- 

 gram in the University of Illinois Me- 

 morial stadium under the direction of 

 E. H. ("Duke") Regnier will feature 

 selected groups from the music and 

 folk dance contest, WLS and other ra- 

 dio talent, the Illinois Rural Chorus of 

 200 or more voices directed by James 

 Van Slyke of the University, and, it 

 is hoped, the University band. 



A square dance jamboree directed by 

 Guy Colby, WLS, and Ralph McKen- 

 zie, Kane county, as well as a swing 

 festival, with music by a popular dance 



and Champaign 14 4-H teams and sev- 

 eral counties are planning tournaments 

 to be held at county picnic or sports 

 days. 



Tazewell county has already re-or- 

 ganized its popular folk and square 

 dance groups and they hope to main- 

 tain their "A" rating held throughout 

 Sport Festival history. Home Bureau 

 members in Jasper county have an- 

 nounced plans to enter a "kitchen 

 band" of 11 members. Many other 

 folk festival groups are active. 



The 4-H Physical Fitness event, 

 based on the state 4-H project, includes 

 the 60-yard dash, agility run, chins, 

 broad jump and breath holding. More 

 than 30 counties in the state are carry- 

 ing out this project and it is expected 

 that all these counties, and perhaps 

 others, will compete at the Sports Fes- 

 tival. 



Volley ball has been added to the 

 Festival because this was the event 

 most men in the armed forces played. 

 Other additions are Rural Youth soft- 

 ball for both boys and girls and ping 

 pong and knot tying for women. 



Entry blanks are now available at 

 County Farm Bureau and Home Bu- 

 reau offices. Deadlines for entries at 

 the lAA office, 608 South Dearborn 

 Street, Chicago 5, are set at Aug. 17 

 for Softball teams and Aug. 26 for 

 other entries. 



Eligibility lists of Softball players 

 must be postmarked not later than 

 midnight, Aug. 23, and a $5 entry fee 

 for all Softball teams entered must be 

 forwarded not later than Aug. 17. 



Room reservations will be handled 

 through local county committees and 



however, that counties hold folk fes- 

 tival elimination contests to select win- 

 ners for the State Festival. 



19 TEAMS COMPETE 



The Farm Bureau Baseball League 

 with 19 county team members is deep 

 in its summer run-off schedule to de- 

 termine district winners who will com- 

 pete for state championship at the Il- 

 linois Sports Festival to be held Aug. 

 29 and 30 at Urbana. Here are a few 

 reports received up to July 9. 



In early season games Tazewell de- 

 feated McLean 12-2, with Tazewell 

 scoring six runs in the fifth inning to 

 win. Tazewell also won over Wood- 

 ford 9-6 with Baurer, Tazewell county 

 short stop, hitting the first reported 

 home run of the season. 



Marshall-Putnam won over Bureau 

 7-6, with Shuman and Condit, winning 

 pitchers, yielding only four hits and 

 striking out 12 batters. 



Henderson beat Warren 19-0, scor- 

 ing 12 runs in the fourth inning. Glen 

 Kern, Henderson short stop, at bat 

 five times, pegged four safe hits, with 

 Gail Kern, center fielder, at bat three 

 times with three safe hits. 



In another game Henry defeated Lee 

 12-1. 



Counties competing are organized 

 into districts as follows: District 1, 

 Boone and Stephenson; 2, DeKalb, 

 Kendall and Will; 3, Lee, Henry, Bu- 

 reau and Marshall-Putnam; 4, Warren 

 and Henderson; 5, Woodford, Mc- 

 Lean, Tazewell and Cass; 6, Ford, Ma- 

 con and Coles; 7, Saline. 



I. A. A. RECORD 



