Phillshizu (second from right) paints the Roseand the end zones every year for the RoseBowl.

The day after the Rose Bowl game, RichardGonzales verticut the paint out of the turf toprepare for reseeding.

12 sportsTURF

Ll et's face it. The vast majority of themore than 130 million people watch-ing Super Bowl XXI last month really

didn't pay much attention to the turf. Theireyes were focused on the New York Giantsand the Denver Broncos as they tried to out-smart and overpower each other.

The banner-draped stadium, the flawlessnatural turf, the colorful end zones and theroaring crowd of 103,000 were seen main-ly as a backdrop to the game action andbetween downs as televison cameraspanned the famous Rose Bowl.

To viewers, the Super Bowl is both ex-citing entertainment and a fitting "GrandFinale" of the football season. No other sport-ing event, except for the Olympics, com-pares to its flare for the spectacular. TheNFL comes closest to giving David Wolper,the producer of the opening and closingceremonies of the 1984 Olympics and Statueof Liberty centennial celebration, a run forhis money.

In pure California fashion, this year's Su-per Bowl featured one of the largest hal-ftime shows ever held in conjunction witha sporting event. Two thousand Disneycharacters flooded the field at half-time for12 minutes of a carefully staged tribute toHollywood. The show included GeorgeBurns on tape and Mickey Rooney in per-son. As the actors and dancers left the field,fireworks hidden beneath the sidelines rock-eted into the sky over Pasadena to preparethe fans for the second half.

It's hard for turf to compete with such ex-citement. But, for sports turf managers, thestory behind the Super Bowl turf is captivat-ing. It's a story that goes back 21 years whenboth field standards and sporting eventswere just beginning to feel the power of tel-evision.

The common bermudagrass turf at theLos Angeles Coliseum was half dormant dur-ing the first showdown between the NationalFootball League and the American FootballLeague in January 1967. However, NFLCommissioner Pete Rozelle had not over-looked the turf. He remembered how im-pressed he had been with the field duringa Thanksgiving Day game in Kansas Citybetween the Kansas City Chiefs and the SanDiego Chargers. Rozelle told Lamar Hunt,owner of the Chiefs, and reporters from theAssociated Press and United Press Inter-national, that he'd never seen a football fieldlook as beautiful. Rozelle's word quicklyspread throughout both leagues.

Rozelle asked Hunt and Chiefs PresidentJack Steadman if he could borrow theirgroundskeeper for the upcoming NFL cham-pionship game at the Cotton Bowl in Dal-las, TX, and the first Super Bowl to be heldin Los Angeles. Both events were especiallyimportant to Rozelle, since they would betelevised in color for the first time. With thetwo leagues merging, he wanted everythingto be perfect.

The groundskeeper's name was GeorgeToma, a hard-working man from Pennsyl-

lit Super Bawl XXIvania who had worked his way up from theminor leagues in Wilkes-Barre, PA, and anumber of stops in Florida, to the Royals.The Chiefs and the Royals shared the samefield in 1967. Emil Bossard, the ground-skeeper for the Cleveland Indians and "deanof stadium groundskeeping" for more than30 years, taught Toma many of his tricksto making a ballfield please coaches, playersand fans while he was in the minors.

One of those tricks was painting. Tomaused much of the single week he had toprepare for the Super Bowl I painting twolarge footballs with crowns in the center ofthe field. At that time there was no NFL lo-go to occupy this space. In big block let-ters he painted "Chiefs" in blue and red inone end zone and "Packers" in green andgold in the other end zone.

When setting up the Cotton Bowl for theNFL championships that year, Toma met"Doc" (Dr. James) Watson, a Texan witha Ph.D. in turfgrass management whoworked for The Toro Company in Minneapo-lis, MN. Today, Toma, his son Chip and Wat-son work together on every major NFL event.

Watson suggested Toma "wake up" theColiseum turf with calcium nitrate fertiliz-er and careful irrigation. Since he only hada week, overseeding with perennial ryegrasswas out of the question. Another trick ap-plied was mowing the field to provide anoticeable change in pattern every fiveyards.

When television viewers saw Super Bowl

I on a color set, they knew this was not justanother football game. It wasn't just the firstcontest between the champions of both foot-ball leagues. It was a new and improvedattempt to build a stage for sporting eventsmade possible largely by color television.To some it was ranked as a step forwardin television technology that would changeAmerican life in a way not unlike the "spacerace."

Super Bowl I was a turning point in bothtelevision and professional football. Todaywe realize it was also a turning point for thequality of gridirons across the country, fromthe professional stadium to the local park.Advances in turfgrass management neces-sitated by the growing significance and risingstandards of the Super Bowl during its 21years of competition, are applied today atevery level of football.

One thing is certain, the NFL takes overfor this major media event. It's as if Rozelleis keeping his personal word to the televi-sion networks at all costs. His word is passeddown clearly by NFL Special Events Coor-dinator James Steeg to the networks, thesecurity, the stadium management and thefield turf managers.

While preparation of the Coliseum fieldfor Super Bowl I took less than a week, plan-ning for Super Bowl XXI took more than ayear. The Rose Bowl field received monthsof attention by turf experts from across thecountry, in addition to its own consultant,

continued on page 14

Chip Toma arrived before the Rose Bowl tobegin pregerminating perennial ryegrass forthe painted areas of the field.

George Toma (right) and Don Hunt check thecore depth as the end zones are aerated toopen up the soil for seeding.

February, 1987 13

Super Bowlcontinued from page 13Or. Kent Kurtz of Cal Poly University, Po-mona, CA. Since the Chiefs were in con-tention for the AFC playoffs this year, To-rna could only make short trips to Los An-geles to check the Rose Bowl and practicefacilities in Anaheim and Irvine. His son Chip,however, arrived at the Rose Bowl on De-

Pregerminated seed was mixed with humusand spread over bench areas and previously-painted portions of the field.

cember 27 and didn't leave until the fieldwas cleaned up on January 26.

The biggest complication was the fact thatthe Rose Bowl game between Arizona StateUniversity and the University of Michiganpreceded the Super Bowl by only threeweeks. All the special painting done for theRose Bowl had to be removed, new turf es-tablished in painted areas and new designsapplied. The hash marks, numbers and sidelines had to be changed from college stan-dards to NFL standards. For Richard Gon-zales, head groundskeeper for the RoseBowl, every day since the last Universityof California-Los Angeles (UCLA) game,November 22, had been spent at work.

Gonzales has been the head ground-skeeper at the Rose Bowl for six years. Dur-ing his 28-year career with the city ofPasadena he has been in charge of thegreens for Brookside Golf Course, aneighteen-hole course located adjacent tothe Rose Bowl, and worked on the city parks,tree and street painting crews. BrooksideGolf Course has the rare distinction of be-ing used as a parking lot during the RoseBowl and Super Bowl.

He is one of those stadium groundskeep-ers that has to make his field fit any spe-cial event that the event coordinator booksfor it. The event coordinator for the RoseBowl is Connie Borg who works for DonHunt, the stadium director. In addition tobeing the home field for the UCLA Bruins,the Rose Bowl hosts concerts, internationalsoccer exhibition games, and swap meets,and serves as a location for many moviesand commercials.

An annual event they book is a motocrosswhich takes place anytime from May to Au-gust. So, Gonzales starts his busy seasoneach year by burying his beautiful field withtons of dirt for the motocross. The entirefield is first covered with polyethylene to pre-vent the imported soil from infiltrating the

Three applications of iron were sprayed on the field between the Rose Bowl and theSuper Bowl.14 sportsTURF

field soil and to protect the irrigation system.Part of the contract with the motocross

producer is the cost of installing new sodfollowing the event. All imported soil istrucked off, the old sod is stripped, and newSanta Ana bermudagrass from Pacific Sodis installed.

Prior to the motocross in 1985, core sam-ples were taken of the field to check drainagelevels. More than 1,100 tons of medium sandhad been tilled into the top eight inches ofsoil in preparation for the Olympics soccerfinals in 1984. Nevertheless, the core sam-ples indicated that layers had developedbelow the surface slowing percolation andinfiltration. Catch basins along the sidelineshad also become clogged with soil.

To correct the problem, 30-inch deepdrainage trenches were dug 15 feet apartextending the length of the field and filledwith medium sand. Some humus was mixedwith the sand in the French drains to pro-vide uniform turf color after the field wasresodded. The drains were connected tofour new catch basins. Old catch basinswere cleaned out with high-pressure hoses.

Gonzales covered the field with polyethy-lene and the dirt for the motocross wasbrought in. These were tough days for Gon-zales because in 1985 the motocross wasin August. Less than four weeks after themotocross, the Bruins had their homeopener.

As soon as the crowd emptied the RoseBowl after the motocross, trucks and loadersremoved all the imported soil. In three daysthe old sod was removed, the top six inchesof soil was tilled carefully to avoid disrupt-ing the function of the new drainage sys-tem. The field was fine-graded to a 24-inchcrown and new Santa Ana sod was installed.

Gonzales was grateful for summer tem-peratures the next three weeks as the sodknitted rapidly with careful irrigation. Forthe next four months he concentrated onmanaging the bermudagrass.

During the UCLA season, the field isgenerally aerated twice, lightly verticut, fer-tilized three times and lightly topdressedwith sand. The bermudagrass is mowed atone inch. After the last Bruins game, Gon-zales has to switch gears from ber-mudagrass to overseeded perennialryegrass.

Fortunately, the motocross was in Maylast year giving Gonzales more time to pre-pare for UCLA. But he only had five weeksto get ready for the Rose Bowl and fourweeks after that for the Super Bowl. Theday after the November 22 Bruins game,Gonzales and his crew, consisting of SteveMartinez and Stanley Large, heavily verticutand aerated the Santa Ana and removedall plugs. The length of the field betweenthe hash marks was aerated more heavilywith a Core Master to obtain one-inch spac-ing between holes. Gonzales usedGreenaires to aerate the rest of the field witha two-inch pattern. All cores were removed.The field was seeded with Ph.D., a blendof perennial ryegrasses, fertilized with a

continued on page 16

Hours before the Super Bowl, Chip mowed the field at 3/4-inch as his father watched.

The Kansas City crew touched up the paint the day of the Super Bowl.

The manicured field and draped stadium ready for the Super Bowl to begin.

16 sportsTURF

Super Bowlcontinued from page 14

Scotts starter fertilizer and topdressed with60 tons of silica sand. After using brushesto work the sand into the greatly-thinnedbermudagrass, the field was irrigated. Thecrew finished in time to spend Thanksgiv-ing Day with their families.

With only weeks to the Rose Bowl game,Gonzales had to push the young perenni-al ryegrass. The entire field was coveredwith perforated polyethylene to create agreenhouse effect for the turf. Soil temper-atures underneath the cover were almostten degrees higher than uncovered areas.After the seed germinated, Gonzales ap-plied 12-12-12 fertilizer at a rate of one poundper 1,000 square feet. To his relief, a densestand resulted. Gonzales set his triplexgreensmower at 1V4 inches to allow theryegrass to shade out the dormant ber-mudagrass.

Trying to keep the field "on the dry side,"Gonzales irrigated infrequently, dependinglargely on heavy dews characteristic in De-cember. Once painting began, irrigationwould be greatly restricted.

Three days before the game, Gonzalesapplied very light applications (threeounces/1 ,000 square feet) of iron in the formof Ferromec. He mixed the iron with mark-ing dye to make sure the boom sprayer wasgetting even coverage and applied the ironin two directions. The day before the game,a six-ounce application of iron was madeto give the turf that extra green appearance.

At the same time, the Pasadena city paintcrew and the Jaycees started painting thefield. The city painters did the yardlines, side-lines and hash marks. Phil Ishizu, ownerof Sunny Slope Nursery in Pasadena andJaycees volunteer, used his artistic skillsto paint the Rose in the center of the fieldand the endzones. Two, and in some casesthree, coats of latex paint, mixed as onegallon of paint to two gallons of water, wereneeded to get coverage of the turf. Morethan 600 gallons of paint were used on thefield prior to the Rose Bowl game.

The week before the game, Chip Tomaarrived to start pregerminating 800 poundsof perennial ryegrass seed for the SuperBowl. With the help of Harry Stalford of In-ternational Seed Inc., supplier of the seed,Chip started soaking the seed in 55-gallondrums. The seed had to be germinated nolater than two days after the Rose Bowlgame.

Chip also started making arrangementsfor practice fields at the University of Califor-nia, Irvine, and the Rams training facilityin Anaheim. Each team needed lockerroomsand two practice fields for the week priorto the Super Bowl.

The New York Giants practiced at theRams training center. Those fields requiredonly marking since Pacific Green Care'sNeal Beeson had the fields in shape for theRams. Beeson was the former groundskeep-er for Anaheim Stadium and is very familiarwith professional football team needs in apractice facility. He also likes to avoid over-

seeding bermudagrass if possible. The Tif-green bermudagrass looked as good asoverseeded perennial ryegrass when To-ma visited the facility. "The trick is younggrowth winters better than old growth," saysBeeson. He keeps bermudagrass greenlonger than others by careful sprigging, fer-tilization and irrigation.

The Denver Broncos practiced at theUniversity of California, Irvine. Since thatschool's football program had been discon-tinued years before, Toma's job was basi-cally taking the old football field, now usedmainly for soccer and track, and bringingit back to life. The bermudagrass on the sitewas dormant yet dense enough for a goodsurface. The decision was made to sod overportions of a cinder track around the fieldand create two fields on the site. After in-stalling the sod, Toma sprayed the entirearea with green dye, marked the fields andput up the goal posts. A tarp was borrowedfrom the Rams in case of rain. Toma didn'twant to take any chances.

At both locations, Toma installed eight-foot-high wind screens around the fields toshield the players from curious fans and thepress. Security was tight and maintainedon a 24-hou r basis.

The week of the Rose Bowl, Toma broughtin reinforcements. Ten members of theChiefs and Royals grounds crew were flownin to help Gonzales and his crew. GeorgeToma flew in to help Chip start the work forthe Super Bowl. On Friday morning, the day

The field was firm and fast for the ultimate contest between the Giants and the Broncos.

after the Rose Bowl game, the field was filledwith turf equipment operated by both theRose Bowl and Toma's crews.

After waiting for the turf to thaw from anovernight freeze, the crew used Parkersweepers to remove all divots and trash.Rain was forecast for Saturday evening sothe crew had only two days to get the preger-minated seed planted.

The plan was to cut out as much of thepaint in the center of the field, the end zones,the numbers, sidelines and the hash marksas possible. These areas had to be reseededwith the pregerminated ryegrass so newgrass would conceal up the old paint. Atriplex greensmower with verticut blades wasused for this purpose. A large vacuumpicked up the painted thatch and grass.

The painted areas were aerated with shat-tercore (solid) tines to open up the soil forthe seed to germinate. The pregerminat-ed seed was mixed with peat moss andMilorganite and sown with a drop spread-er. The black Milorganite absorbs heat fromthe sun to warm the soil. The areas werelightly dragged with a harrow to work theseed into the soil. Scotts fertilizer with ironwas applied. Finally, the areas were light-ly watered by hand and covered with per-forated polyethylene.

Almost two inches of rain fell on Satur-day and Sunday. Temperatures dropped tothe 60s and stayed down for more than twoweeks. The field froze each night and couldnot be walked on until mid-morning. Tomabegan to consider other options.

cotitlnued on page 18

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February, 1987 17

Super Bowlcontinued from page 17

Much of the paint still remained in the turf.Toma had to get the ryegrass up to hidethe old paint before he started his painting.After ten days, he removed the covers andapplied calcium nitrate at a rate of threepounds/1,OOOsquare feet. The ryegrass wasjust beginning to camouflage the old paintby the end of the third week.

As the crew waited hopefully for theryegrass to grow, they worked on the prac-tice fields. The teams were to arrive in afew days. The coaches had already checkedthe practice facilities with Toma.

The NFL wanted a fast field to minimizeany difference between artificial surfacesthe Giants play most of their games on andthe natural fields the Broncos were undefeat-ed on. Toma decided the field would be cutat 314-inch for the game, so he started lower-ing the height of cut from the Rose Bowl'sstandard 1% inch in 1/16-inch increments.His main concern now was getting the fieldrepainted and keeping damage from pre-game rehearsals to a minimum.

Eight days before the game, the crewstarted paintinq the sidelines, hash marksand endzones. Three coats of paint were

applied to each end zone and geotextile wasused to cover them while the crews workedon the goal posts. Despite all efforts to pro-tect the field the turf near the entry rampswas wiped out in the first rehearsal of thehalftime production. Sod from Cal Turf wasquickly brought in and installed. Toma hasthe authority to stop field rehearsals if thedamage to the field becomes significant.

After each rehearsal, portions of the paint-ed areas had to be touched up. Toma waiteduntil three days before the Super Bowl topaint the NFL Shield in the center of thefield. The final rehearsal of the halftime showwas being taped in case it rained duringthe game on Sunday.

Also during the last week, iron applica-tions were started up again. Every third day'light applications of iron were made witha boom sprayer. "The nice thing about Fer-romec," said Toma, "is it doesn't stain thewhite lines." The field was mowed with walk-behind greens mowers during the final weekto avoid tracking paint onto the turf. All ir-rigation was done by hose to avoid anypotential problems with damp latex paint.

With all rehearsals completed on Friday,each team practiced for an hour on the game

The halftime spectacular left a considerable amount of debris on the field.

Toma's crew had three minutes to clean up the debris and touch up the paint.18 sportsTURF .

field on Saturday. Toma had from 3 p.m.on Saturday afternoon until gametime thenext day to repair any damage to the field.

White areas that had not held the latexpaint were touched up with white traffic paint.The field was mowed a final time at 3/4 inch.That would have been all, but the halftimeshow included fireworks buried in the side-lines of each corner of the field which shotyellow nickel-sized chips onto the field. Tomahad three minutes to pick these chips upbefore the second half started. As the Dis-ney characters finished their act, three ofToma's crew fired up small Deere tractors,two pulling a set of Parker sweepers andonea large blower. In a design practicedthe day before, the crew did a formationsweep of the field as the teams reenteredfor the second half.

These sweepers were used one last timethe day after the game. "We try to leave thefield in better condition than when we ar-rive," Toma pledges. "Rich (Gonzales) isa good groundskeeper so we didn't havethat much to fix."

While Toma was in Los Angeles lastNovember, he also started planning the turffor Super Bowl XXII at Jack Murphy Stadi-um in San Diego, 14 months before thegame.

One event like the Rose Bowl each yearis enough to excite a stadium groundskeep-er. For Gonzales, two big events was a bigchallenge. But for Toma the cycle has con-tinued for 21 years.

The day after the Super Bowl George andChip Toma and their ten-man crew got ona plane headed for Hawaii for three weeksof preparation for the Pro Bowl. After that,Chip and the crew return to Kansas City andGeorge heads for Fort Myers to prepare thefields for the Royals' spring training.

"None of this would be possible withouta good crew, the support of Doc Watsonand good groundskeepers at stadiumsacross the country," Toma warns. "Thingshave changed a lot since 1967 and SuperBowl I. Now we have experienced peopleand better equipment to work with. That'sgood for everybody in the business."

The main thing people will rememberabout the game is the Giants won after trail-ing the Broncos in the first half on an ab-solutely perfect day. They may not realizeit, but the NFL also left a subliminal mes-sage in their minds, that a quality sportsevent must include a quality field. Sport-scasters called the field "fast", almost asfast as artificial. One sportswriter called itAstrograss. All reporters felt the field wasa fair surface for both teams.

The more reporters talk about sports turf,the more the public will become interest-ed in it. In turn, they will expect higher qualityfields in their own parks, schools and univer-sities. Hopefully, they will take a tip fromPete Rozelle, who recognizes that behindevery great field is a great groundskeep-er ... and when you find him, you give himthe tools and men he needs to do a profes-sional quality job. That's really the lessonbehind the Super Bowl. 4.,