Turning one of many public buses within the Tri-Valley right into a “Memorial Madden Cruiser” was solely meant to be a short lived strategy to pay tribute to John Madden’s life and soccer profession. Let it experience for a number of weeks after which strip off the massive vinyl graphic from the 40-foot bus was the thought.
That every one modified as soon as the silver and black bus plastered with Madden’s identify and photograph started making its means across the valley to coincide with a public memorial for the ex-Raiders coach in mid-February.
The response has been so overwhelmingly optimistic that the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority, which runs the Wheels bus service, unanimously voted to make the Madden Cruiser a everlasting a part of its routes in Livermore, Dublin and Pleasanton, the place Madden lived for 54 years.
“The bus began getting lots of consideration. The general public actually likes it, so at our final board assembly we determined we’ll maintain it as a part of the fleet,” stated Tony McCaulay, LAVTA’s director of planning and advertising and marketing, who first instructed reworking a bus right into a rolling Madden memorial.
It seems it’s not simply the general public that’s gotten excited in regards to the Memorial Madden Cruiser. McCaulay says the Madden bus is much and away the favourite of Wheels mechanics and drivers.
In the long run, it was a lot simpler to maintain McCaulay’s brainchild in service than it was to create a correct strategy to salute the Corridor of Fame coach and iconic broadcaster. Whereas the bus’ message was easy — a farewell salute is all around the bus: “Honoring Pleasanton’s personal John Madden, 1936-2021. Coach – Broadcaster – Icon” – discovering a strategy to get it onto the aspect of a bus actually wasn’t.
When McCaulay thought his concept wouldn’t come to fruition when he came upon it was going to value $12-14K only for the licensing rights for the photographs used on the bus. Then, it might value an extra $7,000 for the precise wrap that sticks onto the bus.
“There was simply no means we might do this,” McCaulay stated.
However simply when all of it seemed bleak, McCaulay’s venture got here again to life in true, old-time Raider comeback vogue. The Raiders group wound up donating photos of Madden without charge. Then, Lamar Transit Promoting determined it might handle rolling the sticky vinyl wrap onto the bus totally free.
How’s that for a “Holy Curler,” Raiders followers?
