PENNANT FACTORY
Homemade pennants inspired by designs of the past
The designI've always been intrigued by scoreboards. To me they're like the heart and soul of a stadium. They watch every play of the game unfolding before them. They convey everything a fan needs to know about the game being played--the score, the game clock, even which team has the ball at the moment. Additionally, many are uniquely designed to complement the surrounding architecture of the ballpark they sit in. Which makes each one different. That diversity gives them character, and that character makes them cool. Until now this site has focused on my attempts to recreate a certain vintage pennant or banner, or style thereof. I hope you'll allow me the liberty, just this once, to share a project that concerned a scoreboard recreation rather than a reproduction of a felt novelty product. Notre Dame Stadium is one of the most iconic stadiums in college football. Built in 1930, it remained largely unchanged through 1995 before a major renovation transformed the venue, adding 21,000 new seats. A casualty of this expansion were the original scoreboards. Perched atop the north and south end zones of the original seating bowl stood two rectangular box-like structures made of brick, crowned by a pair of flags flying overhead. Each structure served as housing for the scoreboard display. While this display would change several times over the decades, the housing remained relatively constant over the years. If you can visualize the scoreboard, it probably looks like the one in the photo above. The photo below, however, depicts the northern scoreboard ca. 1930, weeks before the venue would play host to its inaugural home game. Note the scaffolding covering the scoreboard housing as workers scrambled to complete installation of the display board therein. Between 1930 and 1996, four different display boards were used. The first featured an analog game clock set for 15 minute quarters. Other numerical information was displayed via hand operated panels, much like you'd still see today at Wrigley Field or Fenway Park. This required a scoreboard operator positioned inside each scoreboard to continuously hang the correct panels throughout the game. Two doors located on each side of the scoreboard displays allowed scorekeepers easy access inside its housing. From the inside the roof of the housing was accessible, which is where the first public address system was located. These first scoreboards were completed in time for the 1930 home opener and, when finished, looked like this: By the 1940s the school swapped out the original scoreboard display for a second version. This would feature an enhanced analog game clock: instead of a semi-circle marked by five minute intervals (15-10-5-0), this clock featured a larger, full circle clock marked by three minute intervals (12-9-6-3-0) that was a bit easier for fans to read. The amplification device was relocated elsewhere. See for yourself: By the 1960s the scoreboard displays received a significant overhaul. For the first time the display boards were fully automated. Instead of hand operated panels, electric light bulbs displayed game time information. This included the game clock. But, while the analog game clock had disappeared, an analog clock remained: it reported the local time and served as an advertisement for Swiss watchmaker Longines, whose name prominently appeared atop the display. Have a look: Finally, by the 1970s, the display boards underwent their fourth and final transformation. The Longines clock was removed. (If you wanted to know the local time, you had to now wear a watch.) Everything else remained more or less the same. It was basic; clean; even timeless. And while other stadiums across the country were transitioning to digital message boards capable of animation, and even jumbotrons, there was something appealing in the simplicity of this look. Decide for yourself: These displays would survive unchanged through the end of the 1996 season, when both scoreboards were completely demolished to make room for the upper seating bowl. One of their last appearances came in the film Rudy, which was of course filmed in the old stadium prior to the renovation. Look familiar? And while the scoreboard displays may have changed over those 66 years, the scoreboard housing always remained constant. Indeed, other than the removal of a set of speakers, the housing looked the same in 1996 as it did in 1930. Same brick. Same masonry. Same flag poles. But since the old scoreboards were demolished more than two decades ago, I decided it was time to bring them back and recreate one of them. The jobThere was little doubt in my mind my scoreboard would feature the fourth and final version of the display board. It seems to have been the most memorable, after all. The question remained: what game would my final score reflect? Obviously, the game had to have been a home game; resulted in a Notre Dame win; and, the win had to be significant. Moreover, as the score itself would be such a prominent feature, it had to be a score that helped jar people's memory of that game. The more I thought about it, only one game came to mind.... The game of the century: "Catholics vs. Convicts," Notre Dame vs. Miami! On October 15, 1988 #4 Notre Dame hosted #1 Miami in a game many have ranked as one of the greatest college football contests of all time. This game had everything going for it. A growing rivalry. A pre-game skirmish. A 36-game winning streak on the line for the defending national champion Hurricanes. Even controversial t-shirts! I won't go into any further details. This is a BLOG about pennants after all, and I'm pushing my luck with your patience by writing about an actual football game. But, if you want to learn more about why this game meant so much, do check out the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary entitled Catholics vs. Convicts. (See the trailer at http://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=17602857&lang=en .) Thankfully, because this game was so important, images of the final score on the Notre Dame Stadium scoreboard do exist in various places online. But all were grainy. One was out of focus. Many were partially obstructed. And then came this: If a picture tells a thousand words, this was it. GAME OVER. Okay, so I had my scoreboard display. All I needed now was to design and construct the scoreboard housing. I had to do my research. I wanted to re-construct a scale model that was as accurate as possible. This required looking at dozens and dozens of images of old Notre Dame Stadium, and its scoreboards. Images of the display-side were fairly easy to come by; but, images of the top and reverse proved more illusive. After some effort, I had amassed a clear picture of precisely what this structure once looked like. I drew up a blue print. Now all I had to do was build it. The design was simple: use floral foam to make the housing; cover it in a "brick" veneer; then glue it to a wooden base. Wooden dowels would serve as flag poles; which would be capped by a pair of felt flags, shaped like pennants. (Because this is a pennant BLOG, right?) I used floral foam once before and was amazed at how easy it is to work with. With nothing more than a serrated edge you can pretty much cut/shape this stuff into anything you want. Although this project did not require it, you can even use your hands to mold this stuff like clay. It's very light weight. Most importantly, it bonds with regular tacky glue without difficulty. Finally, although it's really malleable , it's sturdy enough to support the weight of objects inserted into or through it, e.g., wooden dowels. It's also cheap. After cutting out all my foam pieces I glued them to my wooden base. The most challenging parts to cut were on the roof, where the masonry is terraced and the detail becomes more complicated. But the foam cut okay, and before long, the bulk of the structure was complete. I started this project absolutely committed to hand painting the exterior brick work myself. I planed to simply wrap the structure in linen, then apply varying shades of red, brown, and orange via water color to the fabric to re-create the scoreboard's distinctive used brick color palette. But the test patterns I developed just did not pass quality control.... To really look like brick, you have to be willing draw each and every brick; then randomly apply different color shades to these bricks to create a convincing used brick pattern. I didn't have that kind of time. Or patience. So I turned to the internet and looked for used brick patterns, and found literally dozens. The challenge was not finding the right brick color palete; the challenge was finding a pattern where the bricks were small enough to appear within the right scale for what was, in reality, a fairly large structure. After finding the right color/pattern, I simply shrunk the size of the image down until the individual bricks were within the scale of my project. Then I hit the print button. After cutting my simulated brick exterior out I wrapped it around my foam scoreboard, and before long it felt like 1988 again. The flag pole sconces inserted easily into the foam and remained quite sturdy thereafter. I placed a blue and gold triangular shaped flag atop them. Last but not least, I printed the scoreboard display on photo gloss paper, cut it out, then glued it into place. The resultThe old scoreboards of Notre Dame Stadium met the fate of the wrecking ball more than twenty years ago. Today, the south end of the "House that Rockne Built" bears a crystal clear high definition jumbotron. Fans will continue to debate whether this was a welcome change. Regardless, I'll always appreciate the simplicity of the old boards; and when I see how this project turned out, I'll always be reminded of the fight my Fighting Irish put up in the so-called game of the century. And, yes, Notre Dame won! Check the score yourself. Note: All unquoted material on these pages is © 2019 K.R. Biebesheimer & Son. All rights reserved. Short excerpts may be used after written permission obtained and proper credit is given. ♦♦
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AuthorIn 2018 I started a separate website called Pennant Fever dedicated to 20th century felt novelty manufacturers. It focuses on these companies' history, products, etc. Eventually, my interest in these businesses inspired me to start making my own pennants. THIS site you're currently viewing, Pennant Factory, is where I'll showcase some of the felt projects I've taken on. Most are reproductions of real pennants once for sale to the public. I've done my best to re-create the originals as authentically as possible based upon surviving photos, known dimensions, etc. Others are my original work, intended to look like the styles of yesteryear. Some turned out better than others. See for yourself. Enjoy! -KRB Projects:
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