Eastern Washington set to install red turf

by Tyson Alger | February 4, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

Red. 

That’s the color Big Sky Conference football teams will be seeing on future trips to Cheney, Wash.  The color will be provided by Eastern Washington University, which plans on installing red turf to replace the grass at EWU’s Woodward Field.

The project, slated for completion before the start of the fall season, will be one that puts a special signature on future Eagle’s games.

“There is no doubt that one of Boise State’s claim to fame has been their blue turf. And like it or dislike it, it has certainly brought them a tremendous amount of notoriety,” Eastern Washington Athletic Director Bill Chaves said in a press release. “In similar vein, we have a tremendous opportunity at Eastern to do the same by differentiating ourselves with the red turf while providing a superior playing field.”

The dream of red turf didn’t become plausible until the school received a donation from former player Michael Roos.

Roos, who graduated from Eastern in 2004 and is now a member of the Tennessee Titans, donated $500,000 towards the installation of the red turf.

Eastern will be the first school in the NCAA to have a red field. Former Big Sky Conference member Boise State grabbed headlines back in 1986 when the school installed its widely recognized blue turf.

Montana athletic director Jim O’Day said the red turf at Eastern will provide a unique stadium environment and garner national publicity, although he recognizes some potential problems from the color.

“I know it’s been the talk of ESPN and some of those things. From that portion I think it’s great,” O’Day said. “The only question I have is what is it going to look like when it’s televised.”
Montana head coach Robin Pflugrad had his own take on the turf.

“I just hope they wear red uniforms with red helmets and they can’t see their wideouts,” Pflugrad said.

Montana’s Washington-Grizzly Stadium made the switch from grass to turf in 2001. O’Day said the turf installed then was relatively bland, but he is much more satisfied with the turf that was installed before the 2008 season which sports maroon end zones.

“I thought it was a little generic,” O’Day said of the turf installed in 2001. “So when we did the latest one last year, I thought we needed to put in a little more color.”

But don’t expect Washington-Grizzly Stadium to be sporting maroon from sideline to sideline anytime in the near future.

“Personally, I like where we’re at right now. I like it in the end zones. I think it really adds to it,” O’Day said. “But no, there’s no talk about that,” he said of a future maroon field advantage.

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