Feb
20
Super Bowl and Our Flags
Filed Under Flag News, advertising business, my products | Leave a Comment
We see our flags everywhere, around town, when we travel, in the newspaper, on TV and in the movies. This past Super Bowl Sunday we contributed to the game, you wouldn’t even know you were seeing our product if we didn’t point it out. This is a fun little thing to know about us. We make and sell the little flags that go on top of almost all the goal posts you see on TV. The following article is about Sportsfield, to whom we sell our goal post flags to.
On The Bright Side: Delhi plays a part in Super Bowl
By Patricia Breakey
Delhi News Bureau
DELHI _ A group of 18 to 20 people from Sportsfield Specialties in Delhi headed for the Super Bowl are hoping that on Sunday, they’ll view not only the game, but the goal posts.
The goal posts at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., were custom-made at the Delhi plant, according to Wayne Oliver, Sportsfield Specialties Inc. president.
“We can’t wait to see our goal posts,” said Debbie Oliver, a company employee and Wayne’s wife. “It’s going to be great.” Wayne Oliver said the group would probably have gone to the Super Bowl, but “our goal posts are just another good reason to be there.”
When the ball sails across the end zone, said Michael P. Zambito, modular products business unit manager, he will be thinking to himself, “That is one nice set of goal posts.”
The posts are the Sportsfield Specialties’ AdjustRight model, which are the company’s largest sales volume product, Wayne Oliver said. There are hundreds of the posts installed across the country, he said, including in Delhi on the Delaware Academy and Delhi Central School football field.
“They are the most specified goals posts by far,” Oliver said. “We are the nation’s largest manufacturer of goal posts.”
He said that when the University of Phoenix Stadium was being designed, semi-custom goal posts that could be easily taken down were needed. This was to accommodate the movement of the natural grass field outside, where it could be watered and fertilized and receive natural sunlight.
He said to move the tray that the field grows in, the goal posts must be removed, replaced and uprights adjusted.
Zambito said that because the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals host many televised games, it was essential for them to have perpendicular/parallel uprights on the goal post with the ability to quickly and easily adjust them.
Sportsfield’s AdjustRight provided this capability by a simple adjustment of hardware, versus pulling out roll pins, drilling new holes, adjusting to level then inserting new pins, Zambito said.
Oliver said that when the posts are being constructed, “almost everyone in the factory works on them, so that makes this a neat small-town story that Delhi has a part in the Super Bowl.”
During the construction process, the post had to be painted the distinctive florescent National Football League yellow, Oliver said.
Flag and BannerHome
Feb
19
My Arkansas Journey
Filed Under my business | 1 Comment
You know, sometimes it’s the little things in life that give me the most satisfaction. Sure, a twenty-percent jump in sales would be really nice about now, but something that happened recently has given me almost as much pleasure.
In a new Arkansas History textbook, The Arkansas Journey, my story and that of Arkansas Flag and Banner are profiled in a chapter entitled “Making A Living in Arkansas.” The piece, which is used to illustrate “The Entrepreneurial Spirit” of Arkansas, tells a brief history of Flag and Banner, along with a picture of our building, and one of myself with then governor Mike Huckabee. How cool is that?
I mean, a lot of people can say they work for themselves, but not so many are pictured in history books. No matter what we accomplish in our lives, we sometimes tend to ask ourselves, “What if…” we had done something else, as if the work of our life might not be good enough. Things like this make me feel just fine about what I’ve accomplished. To top it all off, I noticed that on the first page of the chapter, under the heading “People to Know,” six names were listed, and of those, Sam Walton of Wal-Mart, Charles Murphy of Murphy Oil, and William T. Dillard of Dillards Department stores were mentioned with that of little ol’ me, Kerry McCoy. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now I’d better get back to work before my entrepreneurial spirit gets lost in my gloating.
Flag and BannerHome
Feb
15
On November 12th, I wrote a little blog entry called “Married to My Employees.” After yesterday, I need to change it to “Marrying My Employees.” That’s right… on Valentines Day, we had a wedding right here at Flag and Banner.
It all began during the Monday morning meeting, when our purchasing agent, Jeremy, informed us that he would need to take a half-day off on Valentines Day to marry Ashley, his partner and mother to his son. Hearing that they intended to get married at the Justice of the Peace, our accountant, Sandra, flatly rejected the idea, saying “The Justice of the Peace is for ending marriages and not starting them!” She then immediately got on the phone to her Baptist Preacher husband and before we knew it, we were planning a wedding on the fly. 
It was decided that the Ceremony would take place in the Dreamland Ballroom and the reception would be held afterwards, downstairs in “Doc’s Pool Hall.” The women of Flag and Banner brought in arches, balloons, rose petals, banners (of course), a wedding cake, champagne, mints, chocolate strawbery fondue, more flowers and, of course, the Wedding Cake. As Ashley walked the red nylon runway, we all hummed “Here Comes the Bride” and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Overcome with emotion, Ashley almost fainted while saying her vows.
After the ceremony, everyone moved downstairs to Doc’s Pool Hall for the reception. The cake was cut and Champagne flowed. Meanwhile the men of Flag and Banner crept off to decorate the getaway car. As Jeremy and Ashley drove away, I couldn’t help but smile. It was such a blessed day.
So if you are one of my customers that tried to call the office between 2 and 3 pm, central time on Valentines Day and got the voice mail, I apologize. I have been the Mother of the Bride before, but this is the first time I have ever been the Boss of the Groom. And it feels good. But just like being the mother of the bride, it is a little hard on the pocket book. Next time, if there is a next time, we will do it after 5 p.m.
Home