ACCESSING THE ARCHIVES
March 1986
In this retrospective , we examine historic issues of SportsTurf magazine , predecessor to SportsField Management magazine . In this edition of “ Accessing the Archives ,” we look back at the March 1986 issue of SportsTurf — and this one definitely shows its age .
The cover features a desktop computer sitting in an outdoor landscape setting , along with a dotmatrix printer , floppy disks , and two binders labeled “ Landscape Program .” The headline is “ Computerized Irrigation : A Natural for Large Areas .”
The corresponding article within the issue is full of great insight , such as “ The world is now well into the age of computers , and the sports turf industry is no exception . Every sports turf manager with a large operation should seriously consider the various uses of this space-age tool .”
The article went on to state , “ Software is a computer program written by a technician , but in a language that the user understands . It is then placed in the computer , either via a floppy disk ( which looks like a mini record ) or directly into the memory banks of the computer .”
The article highlighted the computers that were available at the time to manage irrigation systems — including dedicated systems specifically ( and solely ) for irrigation system operation .
Elsewhere in the issue , the editor ’ s column outlined how the Sports Turf Managers Association and the National Sports Turf Council were using demonstration fields to show that “ good fields are possible even with small budgets .”
The March 1986 issue also included an article about how the Atlanta Braves transitioned from a Motocross event to baseball in “ just four weeks .”
“ Today we have many tools we didn ’ t have just ten years ago . We can totally renovate the field and be ready for an opener in just
40 SportsField Management | November 2023 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com