ACCESSING THE ARCHIVES well as tips for quick green-up, how to build a major league mound, the inaugural Roger Bossard professional sports field institute, and much more. During the 3-day institute, attendees got to walk through the steps needed to renovate a professional field, work through irrigation problems, soil conditioning and mowing— with training headed by legendary groundskeeper Roger Bossard.
The conversion of the Seattle Seahawks stadium from artificial turf to natural grass was the highlight of the May 2003 issue of SportsTurf. Less than two weeks before a friendly between the U. S. Men’ s soccer team and Venezuela, Seahawks Director of Fields, Jay Warnick, and crew installed 87,000 square feet of bermudagrass sod over the stadium’ s FieldTurf.
The spotlight for June 2003 was on the new baseball training hub in Surprise, Arizona.“ When the City of Surprise, Arizona, announced plans to build one of the most ambitious pro training sites to date, it came as, well, a surprise,” the article stated.“ After all, this farming community located 25 miles on the outskirts of Phoenix has a modest population of about 50,000. Astonishment soon turned to shock, however, when the city managed to woo not one but two major league teams, the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals, to hold spring training there.”
The July issue focused on the High School / Parks Softball Field of the Year: C. Moore Field of Putnam City West HS, and also featured an article on soccer field maintenance, as well as a focus on field aeration.
August 2003 SportsTurf detailed the turf warming system at Lane Stadium’ s Worsham Field, home to Virginia Tech football.“ The system heats and aerates the bermudagrass field, which is a warmseason grass in Blacksburg’ s cool-season climate,” the article stated.“ Blowers force air( either heated or ambient) through the drainage system beneath the field, and then up through the turf. The system was designed to keep the bermudagrass active
through mid-November, to prevent winterkill during cold winter months, and to provide an early green-up in the spring.”
Football field repair took center stage in the September issue with tips from Dr. Tony Koski, extension turfgrass specialist, at Colorado State University.
“ My first suggestion is to overseed with rye,” said Koski.“ It’ s simple and it’ s cheap.” According to Koski, field managers should put down rye any time the field is being aerated before games and after games.“ The players’ cleats are great at seeding for you” All that running up and down the field simply assures good seedto-soil contact and puts the rye seed right where you need it to be.
In October 2003, Dr. Mike Goatley and
Dr. Barry Stewart shared research findings regarding the application of turf blankets on a temporary basis to maintain bermudagrass color through the end of the football season.
“ Keeping the covers on the plots during the winter months resulted in spring green-up 4-6 weeks earlier than uncovered turf the following spring,” the article stated.“ The only negative covering responses that we observed were an increase in winter annual weed pressure and fire ant activity, both primarily because of the soil warming. There was no evidence of increased disease pressure, though we anticipate this could be a problem.”
The November 2003 issue of Sports Turf previewed the 15th annual STMA Conference & Exhibition at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego; while the December issue wrapped up the year with a focus on field drainage, as well as multiple articles on the topic of field construction.
All content for this section is pulled from the SportsTurf / SportsField Management archives, an ongoing cooperative project of EPG Media, SFMA and the Michigan State University Libraries. Public access to the archive from 1985 to the present( less two months) is available at https:// sturf. lib. msu. edu / index. html. sportsfieldmanagementonline. com July 2025 | SportsField Management
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