Hoosier Ag Today is celebrating the great game of basketball—which is also the theme of the Indiana State Fair, which “tips off” on Friday, July 28.
“What is more iconic Indiana than a basketball hoop and backboard on the side of a barn?” says Anna Whelchel, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer with the Indiana State Fair.
This year’s Indiana State Fair theme is “The State That Grew the Game”, which will combine your favorite fair traditions mixed in with immersive basketball exhibits, courts, players and more.
To join in the celebration, Hoosier Ag Today wants to see where you take your best shot in the Hoosier Ag Today Farm Hoop Photo Contest—sponsored by the Indiana State Fair and CountryMark—running now through July 23.
Hoosier Ag Today is looking for the coolest farm hoop setups from rural Indiana. To enter, just take a photo of your farm hoop setup in rural Indiana and attach it to the entry page at HoosierAgToday.com.
“We just are really excited to bring this contest to life,” says Whelchel. “It’s such an iconic moment of driving down the road or the back roads and you see an old farm or an old barn that has that hoop on the side of it. That’s such an iconic photo to Indiana and who we are and so we want to see your hoop on the side of your barn.”
This year’s top prize in the Hoosier Ag Today Farm Hoop Photo Contest is $1,000. CountryMark and the Indiana State Fair are providing additional prizes as well.
Much like the iconic photo of Indiana Basketball Hall-of-Famer Rick Mount holding a basketball and standing in front of a barn on his family’s Boone County farm on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1966 (shown at right), there has been a strong connection for many years between rural Indiana and the game of basketball.
“We want to connect the story about why basketball came to Indiana and then why it stayed in Indiana,” according to Whelchel. “That story is really rooted in agriculture and farming timelines. That’s what the Indiana State Fair is all about is really celebrating and telling the story of agriculture.”
Whelchel says you’ll be seeing a lot of basketball action at this year’s Indiana State Fair.
“On the north side of the Indiana State Fairgrounds, we’re going to have an outdoor basketball themed amusement park called Hoopfest where we’ll have a full-size regulation basketball court. That’s where we’ll hosting tournaments, kids camps and celebrity appearances,” says Whelchel.
“We’re also going to curate a custom exhibit in our Harvest Pavilion with our great partners at Pacers Sports and Entertainment. That exhibit will connect the dots for the fair goers about why basketball thrives here in Indiana and is really a part of our lives,” says Whelchel.
Click here to learn more about the basketball-themed attractions at this year’s Indiana State Fair.
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s radio news report for Hoosier Ag Today.
