Bronco Stadium - Blue Artificial Turf

Blue Artificial Turf

Bronco Stadium is best known for its distinctive blue playing surface, the only non-green football playing surface among Division I FBS programs.

Chris Berman of ESPN has also called Boise's turf "The Blue Plastic Tundra," a joking reference to "the frozen tundra" of Lambeau Field. Another nickname for the surface is "Smurf Turf." Players refer to it simply as "The Blue."

After 16 seasons of playing on standard green AstroTurf, athletic director Gene Bleymaier came up with the idea to install the blue turf. He decided that, if BSU was going to spend $750,000 on a new surface, he didn't want to see BSU install yet another green field, and that a blue field might provide some national notoriety for the school, then a member of the Big Sky Conference. Bleymaier gained the support of BSU President John Keiser, and on September 13, Bronco Stadium introduced its unique playing surface to the world with a 74-0 victory over Division II Humboldt State. (BSU was 4-2 at home in 1986, but managed just one road victory and posted their first losing record in four decades, resulting in the resignation of fourth-year head coach Lyle Setencich.)

BSU replaced the first blue AstroTurf with the same in 1995, then with blue Astroplay (a grass-like synthetic surface that is more forgiving than traditional AstroTurf) in 2002. The AstroPlay field lasted just six seasons and was replaced in the summer of 2008 with blue FieldTurf surface. Due to complaints by fans that the reflection and glare off the field gave the new field a dull and uneven shade of blue, FieldTurf agreed to replace the field free of charge. The fifth blue turf was installed in the summer of 2010.

The unique blue turf has spawned several myths. The most prevalent is that the NCAA subsequently banned playing surface colors other than green, but allowed Bronco Stadium's field to remain blue under a grandfather clause. In reality, the NCAA has never adopted such a rule. Any school may color its playing surface (or any part, mainly the end zones) any color it wishes. Indeed, other schools have non-green football fields including the University of New Haven (blue) and Eastern Washington University (red). On April 1, 2011, the University of Central Arkansas announced that they would install a purple and grey striped field to Estes Stadium. Nine high schools also have non-green fields: Barrow High School in Barrow, Alaska, Lovington High School in Lovington, New Mexico, West Hills High School in Santee, California (alternating royal and sky blue every five yards), Hidalgo High School in Hidalgo, Texas (navy), Chaminade College Preparatory School in the Los Angeles neighborhood of West Hills, Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, New Braunfels (Texas) Canyon High (red) and Canutillo High School in El Paso, Texas.

Another myth is that, mistaking the blue field for a large body of water, birds have flown into the blue turf and to their deaths. Although Broncos coach Chris Petersen claimed to have found a dead duck on the field in 2007, the origin of the duck on the field has never been confirmed.

BSU's blue turf has become such a highly visible icon for the Broncos that BSU obtained a U.S. trademark registration for a blue athletics field in November, 2009.

In 2011, the NFL banned any playing surface color other than green naming the rule the "Boise Rule" in reference to the university, though this was more a reaction to sponsor influence as no team had ever proposed a different turf color for their field. Also in 2011, the Mountain West Conference banned Boise from wearing their all-blue uniforms during home conference games, after complaints from other Mountain West coaches that it was an unfair advantage.