UC San Diego is an incredible school. They have a proud history of excellence in education and winning athletes in sports. Their Triton Stadium has been given the title as one of the best on the West Coast, and features their famous track and field team. There is, however, a few things missing. The most obvious is a modern electronic scoreboard. The students at UC San Diego are well aware of the need and have decided to do something about it.
As you gaze upon the students and teams at the track and field area of Triton Stadium, you find yourself impressed with the enthusiasm and talent. The stadium itself has not seen any upgrades since it was originally built around twenty years ago. Even though it has been in need for this long, there is a crisp, clean and well-kept look of the stadium and track and field. It’s apparent to anyone that the school takes great pride in the Triton. The major downside is that this is a stadium that would have the ability to play host to major sporting events, except that they can’t. Without an up-to-date electronic scoreboard, this field isn’t even a contender.
Charlotte County Stadium was home to spring training for the Texas Rangers for over fifteen years. When the Rangers left, it also left the ballpark stadium without quite a bit of income. Since it was rather old and desperately in need of upgrades, the stadium was redone and welcomed the Tampa Bay Rays.
Port Charlotte is a lovely Florida town in between Tampa and Ft Myers. It has experienced spurts of growth that have gradually expanded it into a small little big town. When the Rangers departed the Charlotte County Stadium, seeking bigger facilities, the authorities of Charlotte County Stadium realized they had to do something about the condition of their stadium to bring in the bigger teams.
The hottest news in Belle Vue England happened when the Wakefield Wildcats arrived to find their twenty foot scoreboard, gone missing. The Wakefield Wildcats are part of the Super League in Rugby and the scoreboard kept the tone of the game for the teams and fans alike. The community and officials are all baffled regarding the theft of the scoreboard at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium.
School and campus pranks are well known around the world, and some can take on dangerous levels of bravado. However, there’s no evidence that the missing scoreboard of the Wakefield Wildcats is a school prank. In fact, the community and local police are trying to figure out exactly how this was one.
Every school wants a new electronic scoreboard for their teams. It’s the topic that dreams are made of in the sports world. When the football team at Delaware Valley High School came onto their field, they were just down right embarrassed at their own scoreboard. The scoreboard was barely visible, and that was actually a blessing. To support their team, the Hunterdon Orthopedic Institute, a group well known to the team members, rescued the school and team sanity by donating the $17,500 needed for a state of the art scoreboard.
The kids at Delaware Valley High School in Raritan County New Jersey are incredibly supportive of their football team. You can see videos of the latest “Terriers” games on the school website along with their motto ‘hold the rope’. The electronic scoreboard that was in their football field was the same board that was erected when the school was built in the 1960’s. The scoreboard became one of the major hurtles to overcome when the team entered the field. Some simply tried to ignore it.
A university will often invest a lot of money into their stadium. The stadium represents not only a location where everyone can gather, but also added revenue for the various sporting events and entertainment that can be held there. In an era of high tech, it’s not enough to have a classy stadium, you must also have an electronic scoreboard that will wow the crowds. This isn’t the case at the Patriot Center at George Mason University; and no one is very happy about it.
If you take a look at the kind of entertainment that appears at the Patriot Center, one will be incredibly impressed. Well known stars of stage, screen, comedy, music and drama. The list is a who’s who of the entertainment world. The sports events that are held at the Patriot Center are also an array that would knock your socks off. With all of money invested in the art of getting these shows, why in the world do they have a 1980’s electronic scoreboard that is an embarrassment to both teams and school?
Americans have some fairly odd traditions, or at least they might be considered strange in other places. As a nation, we are devoted to our pets, spending billions of dollars every year on everything from their care to their finery. Texas A&M University is also very serious about their mascot: a dog named Reveille. Since there have been many mascots down through the years with that name, they have an honorary burial area and it has an electronic scoreboard.
In 1931, a stray female dog was found by some of the students at Texas A&M and every time the bugler played reveille, the dog howled. The name Reveille was given to the dog and a school mascot was born. Over the years, many female dogs have taken the mascot position and were given the same level of respect as she is considered of the same rank as a five star general. Almost all were Collies. As each of the succeeding mascots passed, they were interred with honors and given a burial position to face the scoreboard. Texas A&M played a great role and assisted the U.S. Army during World War II. One of the ways that the Army showed its appreciation was to give Reveille an official Cadet General (five diamond) ranking.
Charles Page High School (CPHS) in Sand Springs Oklahoma is home of the “Sandites” and proud of it. This is a school where the sense of dignity and good old fashioned Americana runs deep. When the plans for their sports Memorial Stadium started showing budget cut backs, everyone came forward to help out.
The original stadium for the school was built in 1949 and it was not only showing it’s age, it was falling apart. School officials knew that a newer stadium was needed and they put a well-planned budget together. The demolition of the old and loved stadium was crowned with a last game and a ‘farewell rally’ with part of the expenses being allocated for the removal of the old stadium. Unfortunately, the economic situation of the country took a turn and didn’t play along with the budget. Additional funds were needed for a number of unexpected expenses and the project began to pull at the seams with little money left over for the desperately needed press box, scoreboard and lights.
Ridgefield High School in Connecticut is very familiar in being the recipients of gifted scoreboards. In the past, the ‘gifts’ included a contract for advertising and promotion and this caused problems. That’s why they were pleasantly surprised when the school received a new electronic scoreboard with no such strings attached.
One of the local residents, Larry Langois, just so happens to be the Nestles Waters North America senior manager of sales. Larry’s daughter, Ashley, attends Ridgefield High School and plays on the varsity softball team. Langois recognized the need for a good electronic scoreboard for both the players and the fans and came forward to make the offering to the school.
If you have ever wondered what is important in life – just ask the kids! Anything and everything that they see and look up to, they want in their toys. From a visit to their local fast food restaurant to attending a sports game, the kids want a miniature toy version of the same thing. In today’s world of electronic scoreboards, the pizzazz and wow factors light up the kids eyes. I guess we shouldn’t wonder that there are now toys that try to emulate the same effects of the live game.
Take any child to a baseball, basketball or any sports event and their eyes will focus on the electronic scoreboard. Today’s scoreboards are designed to not only enhance the game, but give the fans the extra special effects that make a game a true entertainment experience. When the kids get back home, they want to continue that fun and thus enter the world of the electronic scoreboard toys.
The 1961 Rose Bowl on January 2nd was between the Washington Huskies and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Over 100,000 fans were in attendance and, with the live television coverage from NBC, millions were glued to their sets for this momentous game. Sports bars and restaurants were filled to the brim with spectators. This was before the era of electronic scoreboards, so a common way to cheer a team on was to arrange various specially seated people to hold up flip cards at specific times. What happened on this January not only went down in sports history but proved the ingenuity of a plan gone well.
In this game, the marching band from the Washington team was involved with a coordinated effort along with students that were seated in the flip card seats. Once they heard a signal, they were to hold up their cards. Each student had an instruction sheet to indicate which card and which side should be displayed. When all of the cards were seen together, they would convey a message. This was quite an elaborate plan, as they coordinated fifteen different images to be flipped and displayed.
