Scoreboards

Tuscaloosa, Alabama is the crowning glory for the state. Known as a center of education and the arts, it reflects everything good about the gracious south. They are the City of Champions with their famed football team with football scoreboards lit with excitement. University of Alabama shares their stadium for football games, with some of the best attendance for any collegiate games.

Athens Georgia is considered to be one of the few cities in the country that was founded on the concept of education. A visit to Athens shows you that it is so much more than learning. The area is vibrant with art, culture, music and an incredible array of things to do. One of the prized accomplishments is the intense pride that the people of Athens feel for their local college teams. Attendance at any game is intense. Whether a small field or large stadium, basketball and football scoreboards and winning is an essential part of life in Athens.

The people of Mobile take great pride in their rich heritage and the fact that they are currently considered one of the rich cultural centers of the country. From the early beginnings of French. Spanish and British colonization through their battle to overcome the natural disasters of hurricanes and floods, Mobile has made use of their unique strengths to continue down a path of success. The sense of pride of community is exemplified in every area of their town and their love of their sports teams has kept the spirit alive. Football is the main sport of the area, but it is followed closely with fans of baseball, basketball and golf.

The Knoxville area has had many struggles throughout its history. From the start, it seemed to be a quietly beautiful area tucked away near the Tennessee River. It has survived conflicts and wars as well as bad economic times and has remained a pride of the people of Tennessee. With all that Knoxville has been through, they remain known for the University of Tennessee's Volunteers Athletic Program. The Vols, as they are called, are the top football team of popularity. Every game is a sell out and all eyes are on that football scoreboard.

Often referred to as the gem of the U.S., Charlotte, North Carolina is richly steeped in old world and southern charm. This is a dichotomy, as Charlotte has also progressed to now be the U.S. 2nd largest financial center. The grace and beauty of the city is complimented with high tech, culture, incredible universities and colleges and pride in their sports teams. Football and basketball reign supreme in Charlotte; with stadiums, fans and both basketball and football scoreboards to support the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Bobcats.

Charlotte was originally settled by people of European descent. After the American Revolution the city experienced a boom with the cotton and railroad industries. After the Civil War, many of the soldiers posted at Fort Greene cherished the area so much that they decided to remain. This increased the population and spurred an intensity of growth and opportunity. Named after King George, III queen consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz, the city wanted to retain some of its original relationship to its European roots.

We cruise along in life with an expectation that some things will go right and inevitably, some things will go wrong. The challenges we face are the continuing efforts to fix, correct or make-right those areas that go awry. This rule of thumb remains the same, no matter what topic we address. There are, however, some things that someone made a decision on at one point or another that simply don’t make sense. Here are four rather odd sports situations (or decisions) that went down rather strange paths.

The never ending search to sell to the sports enthusiast was apparently a topic for the decision makers at VISA. They came up with what they thought was a brilliant idea of an incentive card that would feature a picture of the sports scoreboard of your choice. Apparently this little gem is a perfect gift (available in a variety of denominations) for the sports loved on in you life.

There was a time in sports that the name of Jim Brown was a common household word. While most were familiar with him from his success as a football player, he was also known on the television and movie screen as one heck of an actor. Those that studied his past were usually astounded at the sports talent that was packed into one person. Jim has been a major force in professional sports but also in building positive relations in the world of sports.

Brown was born in 1936. The son of a professional boxer and a housekeeper, he later moved to an all African American community where he lived and was raised by his grandmother. By the age of eight, he moved to New York with his mother. Brown was an unbelievable athlete, accomplished in basketball, lacrosse and track. Jim’s sophomore year brought an array of winning scores for both basketball and track, but his decision to go to Syracuse University opened the doors to show his abilities, where he settled on the sport of football. Jim had a banner junior year which included basketball and lacrosse and by the time he was a senior has 14 touchdowns under his belt, was on the honor roll of the National Intercollegiate All-American Football Players and added his name to The Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C. Jim’s talent spanned across four different sports and he was great in every one of them.

It is a rough road for any athlete to perfect a single sport and very few in the world have the option of becoming the best in two sports. Bo Jackson was one of these rare individuals. His careers in both baseball and football are legendary; and he accomplished it all with a sense of ease. Often described as one of the best athletes in the world, Bo set himself apart by accomplishing a high standard of excellence.

Vincent Edward Jackson (“Bo”) was born in 1962 in Bessemer, Alabama. He was number eight out of a family of ten children and often referred to as “the wild boar hog”. The reason for the reference was simply that he was always getting into unruly trouble. The name evolved to “Bo” and that was what he preferred to go by for the rest of his life. Bo was raised by a single mother, who worked multiple jobs to support her family and Bo was a constant distraction with the trouble he got into and caused. By the time Jackson was thirteen he was forced to change his bad behavior when he had to take on odd jobs to pay for damage he had caused. It was then that he decided to play baseball.

Buffalo New York has had a tenuous reputation, but there is something about the people that live there, that gives the residents resilience like no other. They suffer horrendous winters and lovely light summers; a hard working class of people that are some of the most loyal fans; even when their beloved Buffalo Bills aren’t winning. They don’t seem to care, because they stand firmly behind their team. As early as 1937, a stadium was built for a max capacity of around 33,000 fans. The original name was Roesch Memorial Stadium, later changed to Grover Cleveland Stadium (in honor of the renowned President and former Buffalo resident) and then Civic Stadium. In 1960 the name was finalized as War Memorial Stadium. One of the smallest venues for football, the people of the area supported the many renovations to give it a final capacity of 46,500.

The original idea of Cleveland Stadium was a combined effort of Cleveland City government officials, real estate investors and Cleveland Indian team officials. The purpose was to give the team a professional and sharp venue to play while increasing revenue for the Cleveland Ohio downtown area. The additional hopes in 1930 were that it would attract the Summer Olympics games. This hope was dashed when Los Angeles received the coveted award for the games.

When construction started on Cleveland Stadium, the media cruelly dubbed the venue “The Mistake by the Lake”. When it was completed, the stadium hosted the Cleveland Indians as well as the National Boxing Associated World Heavyweight Championship. Seating capacity for baseball and football varied, but with an average of around 80,000.

In 1936 the City of Miami Public Works Department made a decision to build a stadium that would be a highlight to Miami. Construction was finished and in 1937 the football team, then named the Miami Hurricanes, played their first game. Since Roddy Burdine was a pioneer of the Miami area, the first name given to the stadium was Burdine Stadium. The stadium was renamed in 1959 to accommodate the college football game of the Orange Bowl.

The popularity of the stadium encouraged additional enhancements, so that in the 40’s and 50’s seating was added to create a max capacity of over 80,000. This led to the ability of a pro football team game and The Miami Dolphins played their first game at the Orange Bowl in 1966. The Orange Bowl became a centerpiece of history when the first televised prime time college game was played.

If you lived in Philadelphia during the 60’s and 70’s you had to be a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Philadelphia Eagles. This isn’t a choice or an option, it’s a requirement. If you attended any of the games (and everyone did) then you would have found yourself at the Philadelphia Veterans Stadium, known as “The Vet” by the locals. The name was chosen to represent and honor all of the U.S. Veterans from all of the wars and was a proud moment when TheVet opened in 1971.