Most people associate the Triple Crown with thoroughbred horse racing. If a race horse wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes that horse is known as the triple crown winner. However, if you look up Triple Crown in Wikipedia you will learn there are Triple Crown designations in motorsports, wrestling and in a variety of other activities such as skiing, football, baseball, hiking, bridge, darts, poker, music, and the list goes on.
Wikipedia does not mention the FFA Triple Crown Award. This award was popular in the FFA in several states such as Iowa, Ohio and Nebraska during the 1980s and 1990s. However, it has since disappeared in those states. To the best of my knowledge Kansas is the only state today with this award. So let’s learn about the FFA in Kansas and the Triple Crown Award.
The Kansas FFA
According to the Kansas FFA website there are 12,624 FFA members in 229 chapters. Kansas was the 16th state to receive a national charter, receiving it 1929, The charter application can be viewed at this link. The web site for the Kansas FFA is https://www.ksffa.org/.
For decades the Kansas FFA published a newsletter – The Kansas Future Farmer. Digitized copies for the years 1929 – 1982 are online. Often news items from other states were published in the newsletter. When I search the Internet for information about a specific Friday Footnote topic, I often find something useful in these newsletters. For example, I knew that Sears Roebuck sponsored livestock chains, but I didn’t know they sponsored sheep chains until I got a hit in the Kansas Future Farmer.
Figure 1. From the cover of The Kansas Future Farmer
The Triple Crown FFA Award
Most fairy tales begin with “Once Upon a Time” and that is how the discussion of the Triple Crown Award will start. “Once upon a time” the National FFA had a Building Our American Communities Program (BOAC) and a National Chapter Safety Award Program. In addition they had a National Chapter Award Program (and still do). In case you are one of the younger teachers in the profession, you may not be familiar with the first two programs mentioned.
Building Our American Communities – This program was approved by the FFA in 1970 and kicked off in 1971. As the name implies, the program was to support community improvement and development projects. The program received substantial financial support from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. and R. J. Reynolds Industries, Inc. FFA chapters could apply for grants to carry out community improvement projects and there was a national chapter competition. At the national level the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners were recognized, and chapters received gold, silver and bronze ratings. The last year for national competition was 1995. After that, community development activities were to be reported in the Community Development section of the National Chapter Award program.
National Chapter Safety Award – This award program was started in 1950. Dow Chemical and the Farm & Industrial Equipment Institute sponsored this activity. Chapters would report on what they had done to improve farm safety in their communities. Gold, Silver, and Bronze ratings were given to chapters. The last year for national competition was 1995.
National Chapter Award Program – In 1929 the FFA launched a national chapter contest. The national Chapter Award Program was based on the FFA Chapters’ Program of Activities (POA) and chapters received gold, silver, or bronze ratings. The POA might include up to 12 sections. In 1996 the National Chapter Awards program was revised to focus on three areas that were labeled Models of Innovation. The three areas were Student Development, Chapter Development, and Community Development. The Safety and BOAC types of activities were reported there. The Chapters received ratings of 1, 2 or 3 stars for their work.
If you need additional proof of the BOAC and Safety Awards this newspaper clipping from the Marysville (KS) Advocate reports that the Marysville FFA chapter had received national recognition for their BOAC and safety program in 1989.
Figure 2. The Marysville Advocate (Marysville, KS), November 16, 1989.
At the 1989 National FFA Convention the National Awards Program Committee recommended that the National FFA staff explore the possibility of establishing a cumulative award that would include the BOAC, National Chapter and National Chapter Safety Award. The fact that several states including Kansas were already doing this might have influenced this recommendation.
According to the Kansas FFA website, the first Triple Crown award in Kansas was won by the Norton FFA in 1975. The Triple Crown award has been awarded every year since then. In the early years of competition the award was based on national ratings in the BOAC competition, Safety Awards program, and the National Chapter rating.
The earliest newspaper clipping I could find about the Kansas FFA Triple Crown award was for 1981 (see Figure 3). The Marion chapter was the state winner. The scoring rubric for that year was BOAC – 25%, Safety – 25%, and National Chapter rating – 50%. Over the years the percentages allotted for each of the three areas varied a little. In 1982 the scoring rubric was BOAC – 30%, Safety 30% and National Chapter rating – 40%.
Figure 3. The Belleville (KS) Telescope, June 4, 1981.
In 1996 the criteria for the Kansas Triple Crown award changed because the national FFA had discontinued the separate BOAC and Safety awards. An article in the Belleville (KS) Telescope printed on June 20, 1996 featured several area FFA chapters and their recognitions at the state FFA convention. The article states (p. 6), “The Triple Crown Award, which honors the chapter’s participation in student development (promoting personal and group activities that improve life skills), chapter development (encouraging students to work together), and community development (encouraging cooperation with the other groups to make the community a better place to live and work) went to the Clay Center chapter.”
The Kansas FFA website contains a list of all Triple Crown winners from 1975 through 2023. The website also states that “This award is in memory of Bob Garlow, a state officer and member of the Concordia FFA Chapter, who passed away during his year of service in 1973.” In my research I found mention of the Bob Garlow Traveling Trophy that moved from chapter to chapter.
An article in The Bellville (KS) Telescope (January 11, 1996) described the Bob Garlow trophy as “a five-sided wooden trophy, surmounted by various symbols in gold displayed around the top. There’s a flag, a cross, a public speaker, an ear of corn and a musical symbol.”
Bob Garlow was selected as the state FFA reporter at the 1973 FFA convention. He was a freshman at Mid-American Nazarene College in Olathe, Kansas during the 1973-74 year. He, a cousin, and one other formed a singing group. They had performed in Sublette, Kansas on April 19 and were flying home in a small airplane when it crashed during a storm killing everyone on board.
Fifteen different FFA chapters in Kansas have won the Triple Crown. Chapman has won the award the most. They had a seven year winning streak from 2012 to 2018.
The FFA Triple Crown Award in Other States
Newspaper articles about the FFA Triple Crown award were found in several other states particularly Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio and typically between 1982 and 1995. A sampling of newspaper headlines read:
- Leigh FFA snatches fifth Triple Crown award. The Columbus (NE) Telegram, April 16,1987
- Schuyler FFA receives state Triple Crown award. The Schuyler (NE) Sun, April 8, 1993.
- Prairie Future Farmers cop top honor. The Des Moines Register, April 14, 1985
- North Polk named top FFA chapter. The Des Moine Register, April 3, 1993
- Tri-Valley Triple Crown winner. The Tribune, Coshocton, Ohio March 18, 1995
- FFA ‘Hat Trick”. The Daily News, Lebanon, PA, October 9, 1982
In 1993 Bob and Lorraine Held were recipients of the Leigh FFA Chapter (Nebraska) Triple Crown Award. But this was a different type of Triple Crown Award. This was in recognition of having three sons who all attained the State Farmer Degree. In 1995 Leona Hake received this same award for the same accomplishment from the Leigh FFA.
Concluding Remarks
I am positive that more FFA chapters than the ones I found won a FFA Triple Crown Award, but it might have been called something else. Kansas has done a great job of promoting this award and keeping records. They are to be commended.
As a child I learned a song about not hiding your light under a bushel. In FFA and agricultural education we need to let our lights shine. We need to train and encourage our FFA reporters to report the news. We need to establish personal contacts with the local media. Let’s recognize our FFA members and chapters for the good jobs they do.
