By Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

When the Ironton Fighting Tigers decide to go big, they go JUMBO.

Ironton will be adding a new Jumbotron scoreboard to Tanks Memorial Stadium in a big upgrade from the old model.

The new scoreboard will be 23 feet taller than the old scoreboard and have video capabilities. Ironton head football coach and athletic director Trevon Pendleton said there was an overdue need for a scoreboard.

“(The old scoreboard) has been here a while and we’ve been having issues out of it, so we’re going to repurpose it and continue using it, but we’re changing a few things on it and updating it a little bit,” said Pendleton.

The purchase of the scoreboard was made possible through the financial backing of Schmidt Family Restaurant Group which operates Wendy’s and Buffalo Wild Wings.

“Obviously, through the great fortune of having great people and great supporters, Schmidt Family Restaurants stepped up and footed the bill on it and gave us a state of the art scoreboard with a lot of different capabilities.

“We’re going to be able to do a lot of different things with it on Friday nights,” said Pendleton.

The different capabilities are going to enhance the fans’ experience, but Pendleton admitted he won’t be involved in its operation.

“It’s a little out of my realm. I’m not real techie, but I’m sure we’ll get people in place who are willing to do that and they will do that,” said Pendleton.

“We’re excited, Obviously, our biggest thing is to try and update something every year. The last thing was A.C. (air conditioning) in the Conley Center. We want to make things better.

“We’ve got a few more projects in the future, not necessarily related to the stadium or football, but a few more projects in the district that we’re excited about.”

The idea for a Jumbotron was planted by playing in Jackson High School’s stadium and Chillicothe’s stadium.

“It actually started a few years ago. We went to scrimmage Jackson our second year here. We said, ‘That’s really cool. That’s something we’ve got to do,’” said Pendleton.

“We’ve always had the idea and looked at it and looked at ways of doing it and different models. Nothing ever kept too fruition. Nothing ever seemed to fit exactly what we were trying to do.”

Once the money donation was offered, Pendleton put the plan in motion.

“Obviously, we started talking to Varsity Scoreboard ,that does a lot of our other scoreboards,” he said.

“They had a model and brought it here as kind of a display and showing it and kind of showed us what it would look like and from that day forward it kind of snowballed really fast and it’s kind of been kind of a month and a half that all of this got done, so it has definitely been a blessing for us and a blessing for our kids.”