Over the past quarter-century, Boise State has emerged as an unlikely national power in college football, a sport still dominated by the biggest, most well-resourced programs from the biggest, most well-resourced conferences.
A school that was a junior college until the mid-1960s and that only began competing at the FBS level in 1996 has been a consistent winner for much of this century. Since 2002, the Broncos have won at least 10 games in a season 16 times and, at 7-1 heading into Week 11, appear to be on their way to their 17th. During that same stretch, they’ve finished a season ranked in the top 25 13 times, including seven top-15 finishes, and have won three New Year’s Six bowl games.
As Boise State has become a nationally known entity, so, too, have some of the program’s more notable characteristics — namely, its blue field.
The blue artificial turf at Albertsons Stadium has become synonymous with the Broncos, to the point it’s arguably the program’s defining trait. Fans from across the country who tune into a Boise State game expect to see it. It has become a tourist attraction for those visiting Boise, a college football pilgrimage of sorts.
But why, exactly, is it blue? How did one of the biggest quirks in a sport full of them come to be?
As it prepares to face off Saturday against Nevada, here’s what you need to know about Boise State’s field and why it’s blue:
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The story of what has become affectionately known as the “Smurf Turf” begins as many such tales do — as a marketing ploy.
When the stadium opened in 1970, it had a green field, but when it came time to replace the turf in 1986, Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier had an idea. At the time, the field was surrounded by an orange track, which Bleymaier thought would be complemented well by a blue field. Not only would it represent both of the school’s primary colors, but also was a way to set what was then an FCS program apart from its peers, both regionally and nationally.
“I was on an airplane and just thinking about the fact that we were going to spend $750,000 and pull up an old green carpet and put down a new green carpet, and nobody was going to notice or care that we had upgraded and spent the money to put in a new field,” Bleymaier said to The Coloradoan in 2016. “So that kind of bothered me. I was just thinking everybody knows that it’s artificial turf; there’s nobody that thinks it’s grass. They know it’s not grass, so there’s really no reason it needs to be green. Why not do it in our school colors?”
Bleymaier checked with AstroTurf to see if it would be possible to get a blue field. After initially encountering some reluctance, he threatened to take the school’s business elsewhere. Eventually, the manufacturer budged.
Bleymaier then got the go-ahead on the idea from university president John Keiser, though the two agreed to keep the plan a secret until it was actually unveiled, believing there may be potential backlash to it that could force an audible.
The rationale behind Bleymaier’s idea ultimately proved to be correct.
Once Boise State became a perennial bowl team and after the stadium began hosting what’s now known as the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in 1997, the field began receiving attention from an increasingly curious college football public.
“It was our way of creating a home-field advantage,” Bleymaier said to The Coloradoan. “When you’ve got a Nebraska or Wisconsin, a lot of places around the country, it’s all red, all orange or whatever (in the stands), and it can be intimidating. So why not have a blue field, which is one of our colors, and try to create a home-field advantage?”
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The field at Albertsons Stadium has taken on a life of its own since being installed nearly 40 years ago.
According to the university, Boise State was the first school to have a football field that was something other than green. It remained that way for more than 20 years.
As it gained popularity nationally, Boise State even obtained a federal trademark registration for “the color blue as applied to artificial turf.” If a school anywhere in the country wants to put in an artificial turf field that’s any color other than green, it’s legally required to check with Boise State to get approval.
Such requests are usually granted, so long as a university isn’t hoping to install a blue field. Eastern Washington and Coastal Carolina have red and teal fields, respectively — both got a thumbs-up from Boise State.
It has remained extremely popular among Boise State fans. Before a new blue field was installed in 2010, the Idaho Statesman conducted a survey among its readers asking if the school should go back to a traditional green field. More than 90% of respondents said no, preferring it remain blue.
Whether it’s a coincidence or directly related, the Broncos have thrived with the blue turf. Since 2000, Boise State has gone 158-20 at home, though some allege there’s a camouflage effect that has helped it, with the Broncos typically playing on that blue field while wearing blue jerseys and blue pants.
