Let your light shine down

Every union stereotype was broken when 30 union workers from the local electrical union IBEW 702 appeared at McAndrew Stadium Saturday.

It was 7 a.m.

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It was their day off, and they weren’t getting paid double overtime.

In fact, they weren’t getting paid at all.

Surely, though, they could not have been happy about a free day’s work installing new lights and updating the circuitry of the age-old lighting system at McAndrew Stadium

Surely they griped and huffed. No one would blame them.

“No they did not,” said Paul Noble, a business representative for the union. “It’s just a great community project, and we believe that night SIU football will greatly benefit the area.”

Volunteerism at its finest.

And so 30 men climbed to the top of the light poles Saturday and said, “Let there be light.” And there was. Well, sort of.

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No one actually quoted the Bible. Only a few guys climbed while the rest offered helpful advice from the bottom, and the light bulbs won’t be in for awhile.

But there will be light for the first home game Aug. 29 against Kentucky Wesleyan. That night will be dubbed “Union Workers Night” in appreciation of the workers who will bring back night football after more than 30 years of darkness.

A praise well deserved.

This isn’t the first time local union 702 has offered its free assistance to provide light in the name of Saluki sports. In 1987, they put up lights for Richard “Itchy” Jones at the baseball clubhouse.

Athletic Director Paul Kowalczyk said he’s been thinking about night games since he started at the University. It was Oct. 20, 1973 when the football team last played a night game.

The football facility was built in 1938 as a Public Works Administration project when President Franklin Roosevelt was trying to put people to work.

That’s old. And not old like a 14-year-old with all the answers, or old like your parents.

The stadium is the oldest facility in our conference. Besides replacing the light bulbs, the old lighting system didn’t have enough juice to handle the new bulbs, and officials said they were constantly dealing with system overload causing the power to go out on the concourse.

Without the free labor, the price to provide lighting probably would have been more than the Athletic Department’s budget could have shouldered, especially given the cuts that keep coming down from the state.

So local union 702 has done its part; now its time to do yours. Coach Kill said people have been asking him since he started here when they would get the lights fixed on the stadium. Next season there will be four night games, and this will allow more people to cheer on the Salukis. Also, the team won’t have to compete for spectators with the major conference teams like the University of Illinois that also play in the afternoon, or compete with other Carbondale summer, afternoon recreations.

So there will be light. Now let’s see some maroon-and-white football pride. Win or lose, day or (thanks to the local union 702) night.