When Craig Bohn first started running the scoreboard at the Utah football stadium 30 years ago, things didn’t go so well.
“I put the score up but I put it on the wrong team,” Bohn said. “Nobody showed me how to take points off. So I just kept going up and up and I figured hell, when it gets to 99, it’s got to go to zero.”
But it didn’t.
It just kept going to 101. Bohn said he finally figured out how to take points off and the rest of the game went on without a hitch.
Bohn, administrative director of Central Services at the U, controls the scoreboard for Rice-Eccles Stadium. He started out keeping score for high school games and has spent the past 39 years working for the U. Bohn graduated from the U in political science in 2002.
“I went to school, went to work and lived for 45 years within five miles of where I was born,” said Bohn, who has only recently moved from Salt Lake City to Davis County.
Bohn has six children, each of whom have been fighting over the tickets the stadium gave him for the game against Brigham Young University. He and the other volunteers who run the scoreboard receive no money for doing the job, but are given two tickets to every home game for their families.
It takes three people at a time to run the scoreboard during a game. One person runs the game clock, another runs the play clock and Bohn runs the score and yardage clock. Bohn inputs the possession of the football and how many downs the team has to go.
Two other people are usually standing by to take over during the breaks between quarters.
“It gets kind of tedious sometimes sitting here for a whole game focused on the game, so we’ll switch off,” Bohn said.
Steve Hoskins runs the play clock and is also a backup for Bohn. When there aren’t people standing by to help, sometimes they are stuck running the board the entire game.
“You can’t have 40,000 people out there wondering where the scoreboard operator is,” Hoskins said.
Mountain West Conference officials watch and critique the games to make sure they are not taking extra time off the clock.
The most stressful part of the job is when the game is real tight and he wants the U to win, Bohn said.
“You’re always on edge, you know8212;you’re a Ute fan and you want them to win,” he said. He has to be extra vigilant not to make any mistakes when he gets so invested in the game, he said.
The referees have two ways of communicating with the score box. One is through a sideline spotter on the opposite side of the field of the score box. The referee is in place to confirm the exact location of the ball on the field by radio if Bohn can’t see it clearly.
The other way is the microphone they use that all the fans hear, telling them to put time on the clock or take time off the clock if something has happened.
Scoreboard keepers also leave the windows to the score box open during the games so they can hear the referee’s whistles.
“Those windows are always open,” Bohn said. “It doesn’t matter how warm or cold it is outside.”
A common misconception people have, Bohn said, is that when the official tells the scoreboard keeper to put time on or take time off the game clock, that means he has done something wrong. “My father used to call me and say, “You made a mistake!’ and I would say, “No, the official made a mistake,'” he said.
Sometimes when they do see that the officials have made a mistake, it is frustrating, but Bohn said he just does what the officials tell him.
Bohn and the other scoreboard operators arrive at the stadium about two hours before the game starts to enter in the team names. Then they meet with the officials to review the timeline of the game and review some of the rules and signs they make.
The U gives the scoreboard operators a U polo shirt at the beginning of each year that they wear to every game.
“It’s not all red up here but the majority is,” said Bohn. “It’s just fun to be part of the excitement and part of the game. I’ve been to about every football game for 30 years.”
This weekend’s game should be especially exciting, he said.
“Any time BYU is in town, there is a lot of electricity and a lot of excitement,” said Bohn.
Lennie MahlerCraig Bohn, administrative director of central services, has worked the scoreboard at Utah football games for 30 years. It takes two other people to control the scoreboard during games at Rice-Eccles Stadium.