County Seal adorns Expo Center Court
Jan. 18—It's a sign of the times.
The official Pittsburg County seal adorns the new basketball court at the Southeast Expo Center.
It's in place in time for the Pitt 8 Basketball tournament which started at the Expo Center on Tuesday after a slight delay from the original Monday starting time.
It's the same Pittsburg County seal that's on the wall in the Commissioners' Conference Room at the Pittsburg County Courthouse.
Artist Charles Russell, from Prater's Flooring, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, recently traveled to McAlester with a Prater's crew and painted the County Seal on the Expo Center Court.
He also painted the names of the current Pittsburg County commissioners on the south end of the basketball court.
"We put a stencil down and started with the outline for the letters," Russell said, relating the technique used.
The Pittsburg County seal consists of a circular design proclaiming "PITTSBURG COUNTY OKLAHOMA" with blue capital lettering within the circle's white contours.
A mountainside and antlered deer represent "Wildlife," painted in red lettering, along with "Mining," "Fishing," "Ranching" and "Farming," with some of the sections separated by painted barbed-wire.
County commissioners said they thought it would be a nice touch to include the County Seal on the basketball court floor.
"It's Pittsburg County and we thought it would look cool," said District 3 Commissioner Ross Selman.
"It has everything everybody's involved in through the county: wildlife, farming and ranching," Selman said.
He noted many professional and college basketball teams have their team's name or logo at center court. By having the county seal, it represents all of Pittsburg County, said Selman.
District 1 Commissioner Charlie Rogers noted the Southeast Expo Center is county-operated.
"It's not our seal," Rogers said of the Pittsburg County commissioners. "It represents the people in Pittsburg County."
As for having the Pittsburg County commissioners' names also painted on the floor, Selman said it wasn't his idea, but he's fine with it.
"I thought it would be cool for the future to look back and say 'Those are the three commissioners'" who brought the new basketball court to the Expo Center, Selman said.
Rogers said it follows a tradition and will show the names of the commissioners who brought the new removable basketball court to the Expo Center.
As Selman said: "We put our stamp on it."
