Day one of sales at the JHS Bowl went well with some large purchases. Amy Albers of the Jacksonville Schools Foundation says that things began really well at 4PM yesterday. Albers said that many people have shown interest and began showing up for the sale up yesterday at 3:30PM: “We are really happy that pieces of the floor are getting out to the Crimsons’ fans.”
Albers says the object of the sale is to put history into people’s hands: “All we expect to do is to cover the costs – the additional cost of cutting the floor into sections that can be sold. We just didn’t want it to be disposed of, and the district didn’t want that either. The Jacksonville Public Schools Foundation’s Preservation of the Bowl Committee took on the job and the responsibility of selling enough pieces to pay for the project, and that’s all we care about. We really just want these pieces to be in the fans’ hands.”
Albers says that a few big buyers showed up early: “We’ve had the Bunners who bought 4 letters from the floor. The letters are very cool. They are large, but the Bunners bought 4 of them. Obviously, the Bowl and basketball is a big part of their family. We did have somebody that paid $1,000 for ‘The Bowl’ section. There were 2 sections that said ‘The Bowl’ on it. One is going to stay on display in the Hall of Fame room and the other we sold to the buyer for $1,000.”
Albers says that several sections are still available for purchase today, including center court: “The center court section we have kept mostly together. Doug Megginson and his crew from Neff-Colvin did an amazing job of getting it up in as few pieces as possible. It’s sitting here at Corner at the Bowl. It could be put back together very easily if somebody wants it. It has a steep price tag of $2,500, but it is worth every penny.”
The final day of sales for Bowl floor pieces is today from 4-7PM. For further information, contact Albers at aalbers@jsd117.org or via phone at 217-370-1994 during business hours.