STADIUM FEATURES NEW VIDEO-BOARD
A charity named after deceased alumnus David Bloxom donated $900,000 to build a video-board in Amon Carter Stadium. Bloxom played football and lettered in track.
By Danny Gillham
Sports Editor

Football fans may be able to watch instant replays of the Horned Frogs this fall on a $900,000 video-board paid for with a donation from the charity of a deceased alumnus.

The David E. Bloxom Sr. Foundation (est. 1998), a charity named after TCU graduate David Bloxom, funded most of the construction of the 32 by 50 foot video-board — commonly referred to as a Jumbotron — in the north end of Amon Carter Stadium.

“Dave was a big supporter of TCU, and he always was thinking of ways to help the school,” Bonnie Dowdy, president of the charity, said. “There are five charities that he would support, and the university was always at the top of his list.”

Daktronics, Inc., a South Dakota firm, is designing and building the new videoboard, which is near completion. The company has built video-boardsfor NFL stadiums such as Invesco Field (Denver Broncos), Raymond James Stadium (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and CMGI Field (New England Patriots).

“It should add a presence to the stadium that hasn’t been there,” said Kevin O’ Connell, associate athletic director. “It will allow for features of players to be seen, market sponsorship to be available and the overall atmosphere of the area will be enhanced.”

Bloxom was an all-state football player in high school. He then accepted a scholarship to play football at TCU, where he also lettered in track. He played one year of football before serving in World War II. He died in July of 2000 at 77.

Bloxom was grateful that TCU would continue his scholarship even if he got injured and couldn’t play. Many schools at that time didn’t do so.

“It meant a lot to him that the school would do that,” Dowdy said. “He felt like he had some kind of debt to TCU.”

Bloxom started numerous businesses while still in college, and owned Speed Fab-Crete,which constructs buildings using pre-made light-weight concrete panels.

“Dave made a lot of friends at TCU,” Dowdy said. “He felt that if it wasn’t for his opportunity to go (here)he would have never made the contacts possible to get his business started.”

Although the video-board is close to completion, O’Connell said the real excitement will be seeing it when the Frogs take the field Sept.14 against Southern Methodist University.

“It’s been a matter of waiting till the time comes,” O’Connell said. “We have been going around and looking at other Daktronic boards, but we really won’t know what we have until that first game.”