Musco Lighting was founded by Joe Crookham, a lawyer, and Myron Gordin, an engineer. Together in 1968 they founded a startup business venture named G&L Industries which manufactured products that were sold under their customer's brand names. In 1976, Joe and Myron purchased the Muscatine Lighting and Manufacturing Company in Muscatine, Iowa, which marked the start of Musco Lighting. A year later in 1977, the company released the Sports Cluster® system. This development featured fixtures that were mounted on metal cross arms, rather than the standard wooden ones, simplifying installation and improving reliability. By 1979, through research and development, the company introduced factory luminaire aiming, as well as the remote ballast, simplifying maintenance by placing the electrical components in a service box near the base of the pole.
1980s
Musco would enter the movie industry in 1983, when they provided lighting for All the Right Moves, a Tom Cruise film. Musco continued to light large sporting events, including the 1983 Super Bowl, followed by the 1984 Olympic Games taking place in Los Angeles. They also marketed small baseball parks across the US by designing a four-pole light system for Little League fields. The second half of the 1980s consisted of Musco lighting the rededication ceremony for the Statue of Liberty, providing on-screen lighting for the film "Field of Dreams" and several others, and introducing several new products including SportsCluster-2®, Level-8™, and Total Light Control™.
1990s
In 1992, Musco was contracted to light the first Little League World Series to be played at night at Lamade Stadium. After this World Series, the company would go on to becoming the Official Sports-Lighting System of Little League Baseball and partner to create A Safety Awareness Program™ to improve safety in Little League. Musco moved into a new area of sports lighting by developing Mirtran™ to meet the criteria for lighting NASCAR tracks. Charlotte Motor Speedway was the first to receive this new technology in 1992 for "one hot night", a part of the 1992 Winston Cup. This design would be used at the Daytona International Speedway. Musco made their first major lighting installation in Europe by implementing its lighting system at Dunstall Park, in England. The final year of the decade saw a major innovation in regards to facility management with Control-Link, a wireless control system based on internet technologies that provides facility managers the ability to control their sports-lighting remotely.
2000s
Musco expanded in 2002 both internationally and domestically, by opening production facilities in China and South Korea, and by placing regionally based lighting technicians to service customers in the US, respectively. In 2005, Musco introduced Musco's Light-Structure Green™ system and the Musco Constant 25™, a 25-year warranty and maintenance program. The White House was Musco's first outdoor application with the technology. Additionally, in 2008 Musco brought light to the Losail International Circuit, one of the world's largest lighting projects, along with the Yas Marina Circuit in 2009.
2010s
In 2010, Musco engaged one of its largest projects, lighting the East Span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. After three years of development and testing, the design had 51,500 LEDs in 1,600 light fixtures strategically aimed to highlight the bridge without shining light in the eyes of the 300,000 daily drivers. The new LED system reduced energy consumption by 50 percent as compared to the typical metal halide lighting. In 2013, Musco installed LED lights at Arizona State University's Wells Fargo Arena, the first in NCAA basketball. The following year, Emerson, Georgia LakePoint Sporting Community installed Musco's Light-Structure Green™ LED system, being the first major sports complex to do so. Musco also installed its system at NRG Stadium, making it one of the first NFL stadiums to be lit with LED technology, and at Twickenham Stadium, one of the first in Europe, for the Rugby World Cup being held in England. Musco's SportsCluster Green™ LED system is in the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium. In 2015, Musco took on the task of providing LED lighting for both the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore. Musco's 2016 projects of scale included Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal F.C., Petco Park of the San Diego Padres, and Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros. Musco has offices around the globe, in Australia, Canada, China, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Jordan, South Africa, South Korea, UAE, United Kingdom, and the United States.
