Watchfire Celebrates the History of the Football Segment Timer

Watchfire is known for its new product innovations, so it should be no surprise when Watchfire expanded its sports product line, it turned to another company known for its inventive firsts. Spectrum Scoreboards made a significant impact on the world of sports when they introduced the first-ever segment timer, revolutionizing the way coaches scheduled and managed their practices.

The story begins in 1986 in the heart of Texas, with a passionate football coach named Emory Bellard. Coach Bellard led his high school football team to three state championships, which landed him the head coaching job at Texas A&M, where he led the Aggies to three straight bowl games. As a Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Coach Bellard is considered the “Father of the Wishbone Offense”. The wishbone formation revolutionized college football in the 1970s and 1980s and still has an influence on today’s playmaking. However, throughout his career, he faced a reoccurring problem, Bellard often lost track of time during football practices, resulting in drills that ran over their allocated schedule.

“That meant we might not do a drill today because we did it yesterday. We were cutting a lot of things out of the practice that I think are important with repetition on a daily basis,” said Bellard in his autobiography Wishbone Wisdom.

Frustrated, Bellard developed a timeline that divided practices into five-minute segments. For shorter practices, he dropped a minute from each segment instead of dropping an entire drill. Bellard took it a step further and turned to Spectrum Scoreboards, a family-owned company based in Houston, Texas, known for their reliable scoreboard timing. Together, they invented a specialized timer that splits practice into segments with a set time limit assigned to each. At 0, the horn sounds and automatically switches to the next segment letting coaches and players know it’s time to move on to the next drill, keeping the entire practice on a strict schedule.

The practice timer operates as a stand-alone device that can be easily moved anywhere on the field. Its customizable settings clearly display the segment number and how much time remains in the current segment. Each segment can be tailored to accommodate various drills for all sports, ensuring athletes focus on their practice objectives without losing sight of time constraints.

“We love working hand in hand with coaches and athletic directors,” said Darren, a scoreboard specialist at Spectrum by Watchfire. “They teach us invaluable lessons, enabling us to create products and services that truly meet their needs and help improve football practice and games.”

“They called it the EB1 (for Emory Bellard 1). The clock Spectrum made for me is in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco, TX,” Bellard added to his book.

This groundbreaking innovation quickly gained widespread attention, and Spectrum Scoreboards continued to add enhancements. Today, Spectrum by Watchfire offers three models of segment timers – compact, portable, and mounted.

What began as a unique request from a Texas football coach transformed the way coaches approached practices nationwide. Spectrum by Watchfire’s commitment to innovation and responsiveness to real-world challenges has left an enduring mark on the sporting landscape.