イリノイ大学の図書館HPに,Salvatore De Sando氏による記事"Illini Everywhere: Japanese and Illinois Baseball, 1911-1931"という記事が掲載されています(2018年6月に書かれた記事).本記事によると,第二次大戦前のこの20年間,イリノイ大学と早稲田大学,慶應義塾大学,明治大学との間で日米大学野球が行われていたとのこと.Sando氏によると,関係者やご親族等で当時の写真等をお持ちの方はイリノイ大学図書館までお寄せ下さいとのことです. 詳細は記事をお読みください(以下サイトから記事冒頭部分を引用).
Illini Everywhere: Japanese and Illinois Baseball, 1911-1931 (By Salvatore De Sando | Published: JUNE 1, 2018)
For over twenty years, from 1911 through 1931, Japanese university baseball teams came to schools like Illinois (and our peers across the U.S.) for friendly competitions and international community building through baseball. Over the course of two decades, many Japanese athletes, coaches, educators, writers, and future baseball legends would include Illinois in their successive U.S tours in the name of goodwill between cultures through athletic competitions. Read on to learn more about early Japanese and Illinois Baseball! On this day, June 1, the first Japanese and Illinois baseball game was hosted on campus at the former Illinois Field. The story starts with an initiative by Japanese educators at multiple Japanese schools of higher education. Japanese Baseball Comes to Illinois As early as the summer of 1904, as reported in the Daily Illini (Record Series 41/8/81), Japan’s Waseda University had begun arranging international baseball competitions between their team and U.S. schools. Initially, Japanese educators contacted west coast schools like Stanford University, who played two home games during the summer of 1905 and played an away game in Tokyo in 1907. However, after an initial contact with the University of Chicago in 1907, the Waseda team had begun regular Midwest trips shortly thereafter. 1911: Waseda at Illinois By winter 1910, following Minnesota, Illinois would be the next school to host the Waseda team during the expanding U.S. tours. In January 1911, talks to secure the Keio University team had begun too, with two games proposed; but, unfortunately, Keio had to postpone–but they would come at a later date and invite Illinois to come to them too.
続きはイリノイ大学図書館HPからお読みください