SPORTS GURU: Former Tennis Star, Coach Eric Pangborn on Big Stage
February 23, 2014
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Eric Pangborn, left, and Stadium Click Effects official Cliff Wight at the 2012 Ryder Cup in Medinah, Illinois.
Go to any major sports championship, the World Series, the Ryder Cup, the Super Bowl, the World Cup, the NBA Finals, the Olympics, etc., and you may run into former Bay Cityan Eric Pangborn.
Now vice president of new business development for Stadium Click Effects, Inc., Pangborn -- a lifelong self-confessed sports nut -- travels the world for the Nashville, Tennessee computer LED video board company.
Now 55, in his earlier life he was a tennis star at John Glenn High and Northwood University and coached T.L. Handy to become the first full Bay City team to qualify for the state championships, the 1987 Class B finals at Kalamazoo.
The firm, which he joined in 1996 shortly after its founding, is a computer based music and sound effects system used by many international sports venues, including the recent Winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia.
Pangborn says: "I was lucky enough to be part of a team which truly revolutionized the sports presentation industry. I have traveled the world and have had the opportunity to attend just about every major sporting event there is now. I have most assuredly lived a dream...a real dream."
His latest business development thrust is to sell equipment to broadcast television outlets such as CNN, NBC, etc., after selling a Click Effects system to TMZ in Hollywood for live telecasts.
The company's equipment was first used at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, in 2004 and has since been in action in five Olympic Games, over a dozen Super Bowls, the Ryder Cup, the Indianapolis 500, the soccer World Cup and countless other high profile sporting events.
Among Stadium Click Effects installations are the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Miami Heat, New York Yankees and Madison Square Garden. "In Michigan alone teams such as the Tigers and Pistons, U of M and MSU and Michigan International Speedway all rely on them on a daily basis to present game-oriented content and data to their fans," he says, adding: "Even the world's most popular soccer franchise, Juventus in Italy, uses Click Effects systems."
The firm also has developed the sports broadcast industry's first digital replay and graphics system called "Flashback." Over time demand for the LED boards has grown and prices have fallen, eventually providing even the smallest minor league or college venues the opportunity to transform their marketing and entertainment strategies, he noted.
Pangborn was named most improved tennis player at John Glenn in 1975 and 1976, was voted Most Inspirational Team Leader on the football team and received a tennis scholarship to Northwood where he earned a varsity letter as a freshman in 1977.
After gaining experience in the Delta College broadcasting program, Pangborn recalls his start in sports broadcasting in Bay City where he was a founding team member and color commentator for six years on Bay City Public School's "Sports on the Air," featuring football, basketball and volleyball "games of the week." Pangborn was joined on the air by Jeff Doan and the late Dave Shore, noted local radio personality.
He was named Regional Tennis Coach of the Year by the Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association. Besides Handy he coached Central in 1988 and Western in 1989.
He was an instructor with the National Junior Tennis League in Bay County, assistant tennis instructor to the late Pro Ralph Potter at the Bay Valley Tennis Club and was for three years team rep for Vandervoorts Team Sports Sales (now Johnny Mack) of Lansing.
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rdarbee464 Says:
On February 25, 2014
at 06:29 PM
Great job about Eric. He has done well.
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