Feb
20
Super Bowl and Our Flags
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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.
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Oct
18
Flag Convention 07′
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Yep, even flag dealers have an association: the NIFDA, National Independent Flag Dealers Association. We met in Scottsdale, AZ this year. If you don’t golf or shop, there is absolutely nothing to do but lay around the pool and drink in Scottsdale. Not all bad, just boring. Scottsdale is one place I can check off my list. Thank goodness I don’t have to visit that city ever again.
At the flag convention I learned some stuff, got rejuvenated and networked with old friends. The flag business is a small group of friendly competitors. Some of us buy from each other, some of us compete against each other.
Every year the same old topics come up: buy American, keep the mass merchandisers out of the flag business, and keep the government out of the flag business. If you think about it, it is silly for the government to buy flags out of tax dollars just so the legislators can give them away to their constituents. It’s kinda like buying votes. Some states even have the prisoners sewing American flags. That is almost like buying from China ’cause it takes away jobs.
Our first speaker sounded like Paul Harvey and looked like Grady’s dad (my father-n-law). He was a little behind the times… he kept talking about the importance of sending ‘thank you’ cards. It’s true, but that is old news. And to keep us till the end, the old codger had the nerve to keep us all dangling for the big bang that will revolutionize our business: Jesus Christ. OMG! We had Jewish people in the crowd!
After the sleepy shift (lunch), the Internet lady came and gave a big talk on the internet. What I learned was the importance of incorporating You Tube into your website. After this we put our “How to Install a Flagpole” commercial on You Tube.
The heart breaker of the convention was the man whose son died in Iraq. He made a commemorative flag for his son, and Valley Forge is producing the flag. The act of getting a large company like Valley Forge to manufacturer and sell a flag made by an individual is not an easy thing to do. He cried through his whole presentation and every dealer there bought some of his flags. Here is his flag
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Feb
19
Presidents Day Surprise
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Today I met a man that made me proud to be an American, MSGT Jeff Vaughn. Jeff is a career Air National Gaurdsman. He has been activated 3 times (which is not enough by his standards) once in Dessert Storm and twice in our current Fight For Freedom. He just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan where his crew did humanitarian drops of supplies to soldiers and civilians on the ground.
Jeff is a shining example of why servicemen are called servicemen, because they serve! not just our country but everyone they come in contact with.
Today he served me by bringing me a flag I gave him to take on his plane during his missions, I thought it nice to have a little bit of home to go with him as he flew over enemy territory and boy did it go. This flag flew 25 combat missions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
To show his gratitude he designed and built me an oak case with a glass front and framed that worldly flag with a certificate he created using logos and the crew’s names and signatures.
He said he appreciated what we did, not just giving him a flag but promoting patriotism. I said I appreciated all his service and family sacrifice. That is when he said, “It’s not a service that we do; it’s a way of life”.
I was humbled.
Posted by kerry
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Nov
10
To sell or not to sell?
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Since becoming a grandmother 4 months ago the world seems to have tilted on its axis. No longer am I feeling the need to beat the clock but rather I want to sit with my new grandbaby and slow the world down.
I have even been contemplating selling a portion of my first born, Arkansas Flag and Banner. I wonder what it is worth?
Posted by kerry
Flag and BannerHome
Jan
25
Ohio’s flag has no square corners - and not one pointy end, like a pennant, but two.
Even a road map has four 90-degree corners to work with. As do the flags of each and every one of the 49 other states, by the way.
It is quite a challenge.
Particularly when you consider the rules that Weinstock established for the brain teaser. The procedure would take two people and be completed with precisely 17 folds.
The first specification was practical. The second was symbolic: Ohio was the 17th state to join the Union.
The American flag, while we’re on the subject, folds 13 times, representing the original 13 colonies, and into a triangle - a tip of the hat to the head wear that the Blue coats wore in the American Revolution.
But transforming a rectangle into a triangle is child’s play compared with the geometric gymnastics of getting a swallow-tail strip of fabric into a neat rectangle. Emphasis on neat.
Cleveland.com and Ohio.com
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Nov
22
Why didn’t I think of this
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New Service Launched for U.S. Flag Owners
HOLLAND, Mich.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 22, 2004–Following the death of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Braden Stradley lowered his American flag to half-staff. But like so many other people around the country, he wasn’t sure when to raise it again.
Frustrated by his unsuccessful attempts to find the information, he decided to do something about it.
His solution: U.S. Flag Alert, an email alert service designed to make it easier for owners of the American flag to properly display their flag, particularly during times of state-wide and national mourning.
“As I drove around my hometown, I saw other flag owners having this problem,” Stradley said. “Many homes and businesses were still flying their flags at full-staff. But if they cared enough to buy and display the U.S. flag, they probably wanted to display it correctly. This service will make it easier for them to do just that.”
For a $10 annual fee, U.S. Flag Alert will send an email notification to flag owners, letting them know when the American flag should be lowered to half-staff for a state-wide or national time of mourning, and a reminder when the flag can be displayed once again at full-staff. The service is available to schools, hospitals, churches, libraries, businesses, private homes and others who display an American flag. Along with the email notification service, U.S. Flag Alert offers information on flag history and etiquette on its website, USflagalert.com.
Or you can sign up for Flagandbanner.com’s Free Flag Alert
Business Wire
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Mar
2
Georgia Flag vote
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I guess the real difference is that most people won’t realize the Stars and Bars-influenced state flag [2003] is, in fact, a takeoff of the Confederate national flag. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom
I think we should vote for the Roy Barnes flag. I know it’s ugly, but it’s better than having the Georgia flag looking like the Confederate national flag.
“Oh and the stupid flag. I get to vote on the stupid flag. When Zell Miller was governor he condemned the existing flag that featured the Stars and Bars, but lacked the backbone to remove it. When Roy Barnes replaced Miller as governor he had the guts to pull down the 1956 Georgia flag and replaced it with this.”
…. these uneducated country hicks will make the difference just as they did in electing our current poop-head Governor, all because he promised to bring back the Rebel Flag (as our State flag). Personally, I think it’s too funny that they aren’t even getting it as an option on the upcoming vote.
Nothing to say here
I got to vote on the state flag (again), because apparently here in Georgia we like to put a new one up every couple of years. I voted on the new one, I figure by 2035 we’ll have the old rebel flag again, except it will be drawn with crayon by some 4th grader, and will feature a giant rainbow colored fist in the center.
But besides the primary is the big issue on the ballot, the state flag. In my opinion, the new state flag is the best possible choice. It looks much better with the Georgia State Seal and the bars and blue field than the legacy flag that was adopted by the previous administration. Rise above the racists Confederate flag and show the nation that our state cares about its people… all of its people.
I admit that I like the new one. It’s bold, looks historical, contains elements of previous flags, and just generally seems State-worthy. Georgia and, in particlular, Atlanta are famous for continuous re-invention, but I feel that, in this case, sticking with something more reflective of Georgia’s stature as one of the original thirteen states is more appropriate, and to these eyes, the “Sonny” flag looks like it could have flown over the Savannah Courthouse back in the day. This is the flag for which I voted today.
Posted by jeff
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