Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Deaths: Helped Design Wrigley Field's Scoreboard

From the December 2012 Chicago Tribune.

CURTIS HUBERTZ, 95.  Died Dec. 15, 2012.

I'm more of a White Sox fan, but you've just got to love that Wrigley Field scoreboard, probably the most famous scoreboard, hands down.  Two years ago, Mr.Hubertz made a trip to Wrigley Field from his Fontana, Wisconsin, home, not to see the Cubs (way too sad these days), but to bring some old parts for the score board that he had found while cleaning out his garage.

He worked at his family's Hubertz Electronics in Franklin Park, Illinois (a Chicago suburb) in the 1930s.  In the mid-1930s they had built a reputation for scoreboards and the Pittsburgh Pirates were using one of theirs. 

Cub officials asked them to build a prototype for Wrigley Field and they brought it to the park to have it tested.  Owner Phil Wrigley motioned them over to his box seats and asked if they could make the letters and numbers bigger, from 36 inches to 4 feet and to add a few extra digits.

"They made the changes and the rest is history."

Whenever they had problems with it, the first person they called was Curt.

A Real Piece of History There.  --Cooter

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