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Sign-maker Sammy Burke built the original Sun-News neon sign in 1970.
People didn't really like the building, but for some reason, they loved the sign.

And some felt that downtown wouldn't be the same without it.

The slightly hip, '50s style rectangular metal structure upon which the neon Las Cruces Sun-News sign glowed was the most distinctive feature of the otherwise characterless red-brick building.

The Sun-News sign was part of the city landscape since late 1970, when the newspaper moved into the old Safeway building.

The new owners, Worrell Publishing, had already incurred considerable expense installing a new modern printing press, as well as retrofitting the former supermarket space into a newsroom.

But they wanted to score a knockout with their sign, so they turned to Golden Gloves coach and neon sign maker Sammy Burke.

At that time, Burke was a Doña Ana County Commissioner and that March, he'd gone to Soviet Russia as a coach with the United States Amateur Athletic Union. His two-sided design was basically the newspaper's masthead lit in red and blue. He simply built it into the old Safeway sign and plugged it in.

The Sun-News ran a nighttime picture of it that December, saying it was "the crowning touch to the Sun-News new offset printing facility."

When the Sun-News building was torn down in 2011, the plan was to try to save at least the lettering for the new building, but given its age and overall condition that wasn't feasible.

So the Sun-News owners once again turned to the Burkes, this time Sammy's son Rocky Burke, who developed two LED-powered signs with a modern twist on the original.

The new building also references the old rectangular pylon sign and its color scheme. Burke says he's not upset the old sign couldn't be saved.

"Why put up an old sign? The old sign didn't have the Organ Mountains, and this one does. We fabricated the new letters in LED. It costs a little more (than neon) at first but in the long run it will run 90 percent more efficient," Burke said.

Today, Sammy Burke is remembered as a youth boxing coach who helped make PAL Boxing what it is. His sons Rocky and Louie are, of course, local boxing legends, with Louie most recently coaching world junior middleweight champion Austin Trout.

Burke said many don't realize his dad was also a talented artist.

"He could just pick up a brush and go. Now we have computers to design, and you don't have to be really artistic in that way. Back then, the old sign painters like my dad, they could just pick up a brush and start painting. It was amazing to watch," Burke said.

Burke said he remembers being a student at Central Elementary when his dad and uncle Ed Burke were working on the sign. He said his dad would be "thrilled and proud" that his old business did the new sign too.

"It was very special for me, just the fact that my dad and uncle did the original one. It's kind of an honor," Burke said. "It's been really enjoyable, working with everybody, and especially watching the end product. It was the last thing that went up."

Christopher Schurtz is a freelance writer and can be reached at