Blueprint for Success: Boise State Is Still Enjoying Its Unique Field Of Dreams

Courtesy of The Boston Globe
Written by Mark Blaudschun
December 24, 2005

Forget the game for an instant. Check out the field. Yes, it's blue. And, yes, if you follow college football even casually, know where the game is being played.

Bronco Stadium. Boise State University. Boise, Idaho.

And while the stadium facilities are about right for a non-BCS school in a non-BCS conference, the Bronco Stadium surface is a pristine blue. You won't find another one like it anywhere in college football, which is why channel surfers will pause Wednesday afternoon to watch Boston College's encounter with Boise State in the MPC Computers Bowl.

The idea was a marketing ploy.

''The blue field came about when we were planning to replace our existing green AstroTurf® field back in 1985," said Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier. ''It was going to cost $750,000. I was a relatively new AD at the time and I thought it was a shame that we would spend that much money on a new field and really have no one notice because it would be the same as the old field.

''That's when the idea of the blue [AstroTurf®] field came about. I wanted people to know we were installing a new field. People knew it wasn't going to be grass even if it was green, so we decided to go with blue because that was one of our school colors [orange being the other]. Even I thought an orange field would be ridiculous! We hoped it would give us a home-field advantage and some publicity. It definitely has done both."

Boise State has the longest current home winning streak in the country at 31 games. And it has the notoriety it wanted. Bowl season doesn't unofficially begin until play on the blue field begins.

The evolution of Bronco Stadium was relatively routine during its first 15 years. Dedicated on Sept. 11, 1970, it has slowly increased in size from its original capacity of 14,500. One addition in 1975 and another in 1997 increased capacity to 30,000. But it was the switch to the blue surface in 1986 that moved Bronco Stadium in front of the pack.

The stadium has had two blue AstroTurf® surfaces and switched to the blue AstroPlay® surface in 2002.

In its infancy, an apocryphal story spread about migrating geese, spotting the blue surface and thinking it was water, dived onto the field. Boise officials deny there were any geese fatalities, but cover the field when it was not in use -- just as a precaution.

There had been the thought that the combination of the blue surface and Boise's blue uniforms created confusion and gives Boise an even bigger advantage.

''We never had a problem with the field or Boise's uniforms," said Louisiana Tech coach Jack Bicknell III, who brings his Bulldogs to Boise every other year for a Western Athletic Conference game. ''We've had more of a problem in dealing with the players that are in those uniforms. They've been pretty good."

So has the field.

More importantly for Boise's pride is that there won't be another blue field anywhere any time soon.

''The NCAA put in a rule that there will be no more blue fields," said MPC Computers Bowl executive director Gary Beck. ''They grandfathered Boise in, so they can keep the blue field."

Boise State has no intention of changing colors.

''We've enjoyed the notoriety," said Bleymaier.