Panthers Tracks: Inside the 8.5-hour headache of removing Jerry Richardson’s statue
At about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, once the crowds had dispersed and streets were pitch dark, it was finally gone.
The statue of Carolina Panthers founder Jerry Richardson, which had a much larger presence symbolically within the Panthers organization than it did on South Graham street, was removed Wednesday from outside of Bank of America Stadium along with the two panthers that stood beside him.
Once the Richardson statue was lifted out of the ground and laid on the flatbed truck at 3:30 p.m. , covered in a blue tarp, most bystanders left. But there were still two large, snarling Panthers resting next to him that needed to be removed.
Several members of the media and and a few casual observers stayed to see the first panther go and join Richardson on the truck. That process happened relatively quickly and was over by 4:20 p.m.
Then came the second panther, standing on its two hind legs. Its removal wasn’t so simple. I stayed watching, figuring it would all be over soon. Not so fast.
To be fair to construction crew tasked with the job, there wasn’t a lot of notice that went into it.
Some members of the crew on hand removing the statues were only given a two-hour notice Wednesday before arriving at Bank of America Stadium that the statues would be removed, and they’d been working since the early morning. (One told me he had been at work since 5 a.m.)
For about eight-and-a-half hours, 10 or so workers battled all sorts of climates, from June heat in the upper 80s to even some rain, trying to take down the giant metal figures.
But one was stubborn.
While the final panther was only attached by its two legs and tail, the process of removing it was far more complicated. The three bolts that connected the two legs and tail to the base refused to come undone.
The crew tried for hours to break the panther loose. It wouldn’t budge. My phone died. Cars had to be moved to fresh meters to avoid parking tickets. The numbers of people standing around to watch grew increasingly smaller. Around 7 p.m., they tried to lift the panther but the base went with it.
The work was supposed to be done by 8 p.m. so the city could re-open South Graham street. That didn’t happen.
The project continued on. Construction workers even left to get new tools at one point, including an impact wrench, as the rest of the crew sat and waited 20-plus minutes for their return.
There’s not a much more exciting reporting assignment than watching construction workers struggle to take down some big panther statues. And I wouldn’t wish the feeling on anyone of realizing you’re going to be stuck outside for far too many hours with no dinner imminent. Let’s just say I won’t be rushing to join the construction beat. I’ll keep with my day job.
Another hour passed using the new equipment. Then, finally, some progress. One bolt came off, then another and another.
Finally around 9:30 p.m., the crew gave the go-ahead to pull the determined panther out. Success! Then came a new challenge: Organizing both panthers on the flatbed with Richardson and the base without cracking off the former owner’s foot.
All along the security guards continued to keep me and a couple TV stations a safe distance away from the statues. We watched from a distanced sidewalk as the truck finally began to move. The security was tight until the end, saying something to me even if I stepped just off the sidewalk to get a better picture.
At 10:30 p.m., the truck parked behind the security gate at the stadium until the statues could be moved to their new home in a storage facility.
From the afternoon to nighttime, this construction crew had worked with no break, but their job was complete. The TV trucks disappeared. That elusive dinner was finally in sight, but all I could think about was how difficult it had been to take down one steel panther.
With the statues gone, Graham Street was quiet once again, just like a normal Wednesday night in June in uptown Charlotte. Security left, Richardson’s statue was gone and so, finally, was I.
— Alaina Getzenberg
Required reading
+ Sources: Statue of Panthers founder Jerry Richardson will never return to stadium
+ Carolina Panthers take down statue of team founder Jerry Richardson at BofA Stadium
+ Reggie Bonnafon’s relentless work to give back to Louisville amid a time of change
+ Michael and Kendall Coyne Schofield on COVID-19, joining the Panthers and more
+ Panthers end relationship with CPI Security after CEO’s George Floyd protest remarks
This story was originally published June 12, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
