Bloomington, Illinois in the context of "McLean County, Illinois"

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (/ˈædleɪ/; February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician and diplomat who was the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 until his death in 1965. He previously served as the 31st governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953 and was the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in 1952 and 1956, losing both elections to Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Stevenson was the grandson of Adlai Stevenson, the 23rd vice president of the United States. He was raised in Bloomington, Illinois. After a short stint in the U.S. Navy at the end of World War I, he became a lawyer. He served in many positions in the federal government during the Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman presidential administrations, including in the Department of the Navy, and the State Department during World War II. In 1945, he served on the committee that created the United Nations, and was a member of the initial U.S. delegations to the UN.

Central Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois that consists of the entire central third of the state, divided from north to south. Also known as the Heart of Illinois, it is characterized by small towns and mid-sized cities. Agriculture, particularly corn and soybeans, as well as educational institutions and manufacturing centers, figure prominently.

A total of 45 counties are typically considered to be within Central Illinois, with a population of 1,874,635 as of the 2020 U.S. census. Major cities include Peoria, Springfield (the state capital), Decatur, Quincy, Champaign–Urbana, Bloomington–Normal, Galesburg, and Danville.

The Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties in Central Illinois, anchored by the city of Springfield. As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 201,437 (though a July 1, 2009 estimate placed the population at 208,182).

Metropolitan Springfield is southwest of Chicago, south of Peoria, southwest of Bloomington, west-southwest Champaign, and west of Decatur.

Interstate 55 (I-55) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the US state of Illinois that connects St. Louis, Missouri, to the Chicago metropolitan area. It enters the state from Missouri near East St. Louis, Illinois, and runs to U.S. Route 41 (US 41, Lake Shore Drive) near Downtown Chicago, where the highway ends, a distance of 294.38 miles (473.76 km). The road also runs through the Illinois cities of Springfield, Bloomington, and Joliet. The section in Cook County is officially named the Stevenson Expressway for the governor, and in DuPage County it's officially named the Joliet Freeway or the Will Rogers Freeway for the humorist. The section from the south suburbs to the area near Pontiac is officially named the Barack Obama Presidential Expressway after the president, who launched his political career from Illinois.

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). The IHSA regulates 14 sports for boys, 15 sports for girls, and eight co-educational non-athletic activities. More than 760 public and private high schools in the state of Illinois are members of the IHSA. The Association's offices are in Bloomington, Illinois.

In its over 100 years of existence, the IHSA has been at the center of many controversies. Some of these controversies (inclusion of sports for girls, the inclusion of private schools, drug testing, and the use of the term "March Madness") have had national resonance, or paralleled the struggles seen in other states across the country. Other controversies (geographic advancement of teams to the state playoff series, struggles between small schools and large schools, particular rules unique to Illinois competition) are more of a local focus.