mn. Opal Schirdi, MclMii, dis- 



ptayf form that won hor wem- 



on'i horioshoes titlo. 



M Dvgon, Kono, dofoots Albort 



Andarion, Warron, to win tablo 



tonnii finglo*. 



and Sho^f 

 county, arm classod at on "A 

 acrobatic donco 



I, talco* firtt In dart Mirow- 

 Ing, womon'i ri n g Ui . 



pli 



tiM 



HOT TIME AT THE FESTIVAL 



YES, it was hot. Hotter than the 

 inside of an incubator. But that 

 didn't stop 3,000 rural Illinois 

 athletes, dancers, and singers 

 from exerting every efiFort to 

 bring glory to their home counties. 



They had come from every section 

 of Illinois to vie for championships in 

 every sport in the book and they 

 weren't going to let a little heat stop 

 them from giving the best they had. 



We said it last year^ we say it again 

 this year — the 1948 Sports Festival was 

 the biggest and best on record. There 

 were more contestants ; there were more 

 contests; and there were more spec- 

 tators. 



Good sportsmanship and clean, hard 

 play marked the rural Olympics as bowl- 

 ers, ball players, and barber shop quar- 

 tets did their best in two-days filled 

 with games, music, and dancing. 



Symbolic of the fine sportsmanship 

 and the colorful pageantry of the games 

 was the crowning of the Queen of 

 Sports by Bob Prymuski, veteran tackle 

 of the University of Illinois football 

 team. Miss Betty Farrell, DeKalb, was 

 chosen queen by a vote of women 

 winners. 



The nineteen-year-old Queen of 

 Sports was a pitcher on the DeKalb 

 girls' Softball team which won the state 

 girls' open class title for the second 

 year in succession. Born and reared on 

 a farm, Betty is now a junior at North- 

 em Illinois State Teachers College. 



Champaign county repeated last 

 year's triumph by amassing the most 

 points of any county in the festival — 

 4,933. Kane county ranked first in the 

 folk festival with 2,860 points. Cham- 

 paign's points included 2,973 in sports 

 events and 1,960 in the folk festival 



events. Champaign was high county in 

 sports events as well as in total points. 



Other counties rating first in their 

 districts were : Winnebago, Kane, 

 Whiteside, Warren, Livingston, Iro- 

 quois, Adams, Sangamon, Bond, Effing- 

 ham, Edgar, St. Clair, Richland, Ham- 

 ilton, and Jackson. 



Winner of one of the most coveted 

 honors of the Sports Festival — the State 

 Farm Bureau baseball championship — 

 was Will county. The Joliet-area farm- 

 ers pushed out DeKalb in the final 6-2. 

 Will held the title in 1934-39-40-41-46. 



Greater than a three-ring circus, the 

 Sports Festival was scattered over a 10 

 square mile area — from the bowling 

 alleys in downtown Champaign to the 

 archery courts, and the University golf 

 course south of the campus. It was 

 just impossible to keep an eye on every- 

 thing. • '. ■ I . U-5*?'-- 't^-^"-- ■ 



^ 

 $1 



F 

 V 

 E 



n 



••>iji> 



Loft: Smiling following hor victory of womon's 

 diving diompion If Jo Davis, Champaign. Abovo: 

 William Gefl (loft), Sangamon, dofoats D. A. Cad- 

 woll, Knox, to win checkers title. Right: Bowling 

 singles champion is Ray Baicor, Ogio, with a 39 1. 



16 



L A. A. RECORD 



