For the first time in decades, Tiger Stadium only has one scoreboard.
Although construction plans for the south end zone expansion include the installation of a new HD scoreboard with a larger display, there was a time in the stadium’s history when one scoreboard was enough.
As part of this year’s homecoming theme, “Geauxing Back in Time,” the Office of Facility Services decided to honor Tiger Stadium by looking back at the history of the stadium’s scoreboard.
For the homecoming campus-wide door decorating contest, Facility Services staff constructed a large replica of the stadium’s 1934 revolutionary electronic and manually operated scoreboard.
Executive Director of Facility Services Tony Lombardo got the idea to build the scoreboard from a thesis written by Chad Seifried, associate professor of kinesiology at the University. Jim Mayne, associate director of Utility Services, used the 1932 blueprints found in the thesis to construct the replica.
Under the leadership of Gov. Huey P. Long in the early 1930s, the installation of an innovative scoreboard, along with adding lights in the stadium, created the foundation for Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.
The replica of the 1934 scoreboard constructed by Facility Services is one-fourth the size of the original scoreboard and has all the structure’s original features, Mayne said.
In order to operate the scoreboard, a worker would climb a ladder and go inside. It also had an arrow that would be turned to show which team had possession of the ball, and the lineup was written in chalk, Mayne said.
“The scoreboard is pre-technology,” said Dennis Mitchell, assistant director for the University’s Department of Planning, Design and Construction.
Not only is it constructed like the original, but employees also decided to stick to the “Geauxing Back in Time” theme by remembering a specific game featuring a renowned quarterback from LSU’s history, Y.A. Tittle.
They chose the LSU-Vanderbilt game held on Oct. 26, 1946, when Tittle played as LSU’s quarterback.
“The reason we chose that game was because it was near his birthday,” said Assistant Director of Facility Services Tammy Millican. “He was turning 86 and had a big professional career and is a great source of pride for LSU.”
“Y.A. Tittle revolutionized the passing game in the NFL,” Mayne said.
The replica scoreboard showed the exact details of the game including the score in the fourth quarter, with two minutes left on the clock and the lineup of players’ names in the game, the most notable of these players being Tittle.
The introduction of the 1934 scoreboard and other renovations in the early 1930s, including the expansion and construction of dormitories in the stadium and adding lights for night games, were carried out to make LSU an innovative leader in college football stadiums and to help the school schedule bigger games.
The current Tiger Stadium expansion, which will include yet another revolutionary HD scoreboard, will seat approximately 4,500 more fans and have 60 more suites, and is set to be complete for the start of the fall 2014 football season.