The Myrle Spicer Story: Father of the Electric Scoreboard

In 1933, Myrle Spicer was principal at Wisconsin Dells High School in central Wisconsin. He was given the task to equip the new gymnasium with a scoreboard for their basketball program. He was unable to find a scoreboard that could be rapidly and easily controlled by a single operator. Spicer had a background of physics and a knowledge of “plunger” technology that was currently being used by common adding machines. He decided to make the controls himself. On June 5, 1934, Myrle Spicer filed for a patent of his control for electric scoreboards.

Spicer’s scoreboard was installed in Wisconsin Dells High School. Over the next few years, the scoreboard made such an impact with the visiting schools that orders started to come in. All American Scoreboards was born. In 1936, Myrle Spicer was able to quit his teaching job and focus his attention on his passion for building scoreboards. He decided to set up shop in the small town of Pardeeville, Wisconsin.

It was Spicer’s ingenuity and his belief to slowly grow the company with a quality product that landed All American Scoreboards the account for many Major League Baseball stadiums, including the largest scoreboard of its day for the New York Yankees. In 1950, the Yankees board was installed. It needed 2 skilled operators to control its 2,500 buttons which, still using the original plunger technology, controlled 4,800 25-watt clear incandescent bulbs. The board displayed inning information, total score, hits, errors, balls, strikes and outs, along with scores from around the league and an electronic message center.

Since Myrle Spicer founded the company, All American Scoreboards has been a driving force in the scoreboard industry. In 1954, the NBA needed to speed up the game and encourage scoring. Several companies submitted their prototypes, but the NBA chose All American Scoreboards to manufacture the new 24 second shot clock, due to the digital clock (the others were analog round clocks with a second hand) and the ability to quickly reset the clock to 24 at a single push of a button.

Today, All American Scoreboards remains a strong voice in the industry, and is poised to once again be the first choice for leagues across the nation. The scoreboards are still hand-made in Pardeeville, WI. Each board is built with the same pride, care and ingenuity as that first board that was created by Myrle Spicer in 1934.