Kimberley Moses-Stevens

is honored with a Brick from Stacey Kluge

Kimberley Moses-Stevens was connected to Wichita State University through the athletics department. She started as an administrative assistant and eventually worked her way to Assistant Athletic Director. She made headlines with her work on the WSU scoreboard. An article is reprinted below.

Kim is a devoted mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend. She believes in doing the right thing at all times and is the first to offer a hand to another.

Her 'Signs' Frequently Draw Cheers – or Boos

When Kim Moses changes the words on her sign, the response is immediate and throaty. Moses, assistant athletic director at Wichita State University, operates the message portion of the scoreboard at the football and basketball games. It is Moses or her assistant who makes the "Hey" or "Who says?" or "What??" magically appear in lights above the crowd.

When WSU installed the computerized scoreboard in 1973, it was the first such sign board at a university anywhere in the country.

Twenty-four hours before the board was to make its debut at the first home game of the season, Moses, who had no formal training was handed a manual. American Sign & Indicator, the board’s manufacturer, Moses made it through the game.

NOW, SHE SAYS, sitting at the keyboard and sending split-second electronic messages has become second nature, and the computer has become a kind of person to her. "You realize how sophisticated it is," she said.

During the football season, the computer stays in the athletics director’s box, then moves to the top of the U section in Henry Levitt Arena for basketball. The baseball diamond has a similar but less sophisticated sign that Moses does not operate.

Moses pulls her ideas from commercials and other colleges.

The board seldom breaks down, she said, but those few times have been memorable. One time, just as a basketball game was getting under way, a repairman who had stopped by to make minor adjustments lifted the lid of the computer. Moses had just finished introducing the team – by flashing up one member’s name at a time – when the entire system shut down. The last name on the board stayed there the entire game.

Usually Moses said she can work around the problems. When one of the three banks of lights occasionally blacks out, she puts messages on the other two banks. She’s learned to check the equipment the day after an electrical storm to make sure all is working.

Not all messages must be done at the last moment. WSU rents advertising on the sign, and Moses programs in those ads before the game so all that’s needed to call them up is to push a button on the computer keyboard. She keeps a roster of players close at hand, potential records that might be broken, and a list she has made of other messages that must run during the game – civic announcements, some paid personal messages.

"We've done anniversaries, but never had a 'Will you marry me?' she said. "I keep waiting for it."