Upstairs Pub in Bloomington installing old Assembly Hall scoreboard in renovated sports bar area

The amount of Indiana Hoosiers history radiating off it is eclipsed only by its sheer size. Photos don’t do it justice.

The old scoreboard acquired by The Upstairs Pub as part of its renovations will help turn the new section of its space into a more traditional sports bar with an IU flair. It stands seven feet tall and 18 feet wide — so imagine 16 or 17 Kel’el Wares lined up shoulder to shoulder. The scoreboard hung in Assembly Hall until 2004, and it moved to Mellencamp Pavilion after that.

Upstairs owner Steve Engel heard that the scoreboard would be put up for auction at IU Surplus in 2020-2021, and he jumped at the opportunity. He made the winning bid, and stored it in a warehouse owned by Dunnkirk Square until the right time came along.

That time arrived this summer. Upstairs is undergoing a renovation in the west side of the establishment which will add 70 seating spots and expand the bar from three wells to four or five. The pub will install four 98-inch televisions, which could combine to show one massive picture if there’s a big IU game or another major event like the Super Bowl. Another 163-inch TV will go in on the back side wall, with the screen facing Kirkwood Avenue.

The scoreboard will go in above the four 98-inch TVs. An active ticker with scores and updates around sports — the sort of thing found in sportsbooks or in Times Square — will go in between the scoreboard and the TVs.

Upstairs also acquired six pieces of wood — 6 feet by 9 feet — from the old Garrett Fieldhouse floor, where the Hoosiers played from 1928-60, along with some of the floor from the Gladstein Fieldhouse, where IU basketball played from 1960-71. The bar had those panels refurbished and polished, and they’ll go up next to the scoreboard. The plan is to include a sign or indicator of some sort so people know the significance of the wood panels.

Upstairs already has a bar top on the other side of the bar, installed in 2015, made out of refurbished panels of an old Assembly Hall court.

Engel and Upstairs launched this whole project to further transform the bar into the sort of sports-watching gathering spot that would become a permanent fixture in Bloomington, something he’s long envisioned.

“He wants this to be the place where everybody comes to watch games,” said Matt Englert, marketing and brand development manager for The Upstairs Pub.

Upstairs began the renovations on May 13, nine days after IU’s commencement ceremony. July 29 is the target date for construction to be completed, which would leave around a month to decorate the new space and get it ready for customers.