Mullan begins the hunt for new scoreboard

MULLAN — The scoreboard inside the iconic Mullan Pavilion has been in use for 30 years, and the Mullan School District is beginning the process of fundraising to put a new and improved scoreboard inside the facility.

The old bulb-lit unit has aged fairly gracefully, but had it not been for some classic Mullan ingenuity, the unit would have needed to be replaced years ago.

Mullan High School principal and city of Mullan mayor Don Kotschevar has replaced parts intermittently to keep the scoreboard lit and working properly, but the time has come to bring the pavilion into some current technology.

“Mullan's scoreboard is close to 30 years old and we have had some issues with it during games at very critical times,” Kotschevar said. “Currently it is working well and we hope to get through this year’s basketball season. So we are trying to be proactive and find some funding source and replace it in the off season.”

Much like Kellogg’s new scoreboard at Teeters Field, Kotschevar and the rest of the school district are hoping to see the local community step up and help them get the new scoreboard funded. “At this point our fundraising has consisted of sending out a few letters to different businesses asking them if they would be interested in sponsoring our scoreboard. This would give them exclusive advertising rights on the scoreboard,” Kotschevar said. “Thirty years ago, Pepsi would purchase score boards for high schools as long as they could advertise on them and schools sold their products.”

Mullan would also be catching up with the times as they plan to add an additional “slave unit” to accompany the bigger scoreboard similar to what is used at Kellogg High School.

The main unit would display scores, times and fouls, while the slave unit only displays the score and the time, which would make the pavilion friendly for opposing teams and continue the pavilion’s track record of being one of the nicer facilities in the Silver Valley.

“Our score board currently does not have a slave unit and most gymnasiums now have small slave units at the other end of the gym, which helps teams during the final seconds of play,” Kotschevar said. “We do have a beautiful facility and would like this feature with our new scoreboard.”

With all of the events the pavilion hosts, a new scoreboard would be a huge addition for Mullan’s volleyball and basketball teams, as well as the events like the annual seventh- and eighth-grade basketball tournaments, and the District I all-star games.

Mullan is still looking for that first donation to get the project rolling and scoreboards like this can cost upward of $8,000 for the combined two units.

“We have yet to have any single business come forward to sponsor it, but we can be patient with this effort,” Kotschevar said. “We would really like to have the new scoreboard in place by fall of 2018.”

For more information on the scoreboard or to find out about donor information call Mullan High School at 208-744-1126.