Musco Lighting history

The company also expanded its permanent lighting business with the 1983 introduction of a new four-pole Little League Baseball lighting system that provided better results for less money.

For its innovative portable lighting system, Musco won an Emmy Award for the lighting of college football games, and Gordin, Crookham, and associates received Academy Awards in the Scientific and Engineering category in 1986.

A smaller and quieter system, the Mini-Musco, became available in 1992, opening the way for work on television series and commercials, as well as small-budget films.

In 1998 Musco installed lights at the 2.5 mile Daytona International Speedway, a massive job that included 2,000 light fixtures, 150 miles of wire, and 2,600 mirrors.

The company's Control-Link system, introduced in 1999, allowed facility managers to use the Internet to remotely monitor, control, and manage their lighting systems.

Crookham told Business at Iowa, a University of Iowa publication, in 2005, "It was an industry where product engineering combined with good marketing strategy could allow for success." Crookham and Gordin acquired Muscatine Lighting, renaming it Musco Lighting.

By 2006 Musco was an international operation employing more than 1,000 people, three-quarters of whom were based in Oskaloosa and Muscatine, Iowa.