SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/266752
40 SportsTurf | March 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com Facility & Operations I had not damaged as many brain cells over the years as I had feared, so I applied and was awarded the fellowship and studied under Dr. James Beard. I found a copy of Turfgrass Science and Culture at a used book- store, read it from cover to cover, and realized that I had a latent turf gene that was now being expressed. ST: What about going to grad school as an older student? Gilstrap: Well that I certainly was since I had just turned 40! The R. C. Potts Fellowship paid $15,000 a year, and while it was a significant pay cut for me, I was able to afford my own apartment and a bicy- cle. All I did was study except for going to the Dixie Chicken for Friday happy hour. I approached grad school like it was a full- time job. The fellowship also paid for up to 15 credits tuition per semester. So, I foolishly signed up for a full load my first semester. It was only later that I found out that most grad students only took two or three courses at a time. Anyway, after the first round of exams my highest score was a 76, so I really put the work ethic in play and ended up acing every course. Dr. Beard couldn't believe it and really took an in- terest in me after that, which still exists to this day and for which I re- main most appreciative. Dr. Beard retired in 1992, so I hold the illustrious distinction of having been his last grad student. You might say it was me that drove him out of academia. ST: Do you want to tell us a little more about your other life before turf? Gilstrap: Sure, at least what I wouldn't mind my kids knowing if they end up reading this. I was the lead singer in a high school combo. We played mainly soul music and some early Stones and stuff like that. Be- sides school dances we had a good job playing at Gulf gas station grand openings in around Arlington and Ft. Worth. I started banging on the guitar when I was going to UT in the late 60's and got good enough to play along at house parties. I transferred to Tarleton State University since my parents had bought some land west of Stephenville. I lived in a run down farm house and really only traveled the 18 miles into town to attend classes and sell firewood I had cut. So, it was there that I started writing songs. I would go back down to Austin from time to time and sing them to anyone who would listen. After graduation, I took a job with a seed company up in the panhan- dle. Feed lots and sugar beets were big business and the aromas masked each other so that it smelled like a cow had eaten a Hershey bar. One day I got a call from Austin informing me that Jerry Jeff Walker was going to record one of my songs called "Ro-deo-deo Cowboy," and that I should think about getting back down there and getting my own thing going. So, I quit my job and did move back to Austin. Jerry Jeff did record my song, albeit 5 years later. Anyway, it was the heyday of the cosmic cowboy, and I also got to know pickers like Willie, Doug Sahm, Michael Murphy, B W Stevenson, Jimmy Dale Gilmour, Joe Ely, and all the musicians, roadies, groupies, and assorted hangers on. The blues scene was emerging also, so I got to know many of them, too, including the Vaughn brothers. Along the way, several more of my songs were recorded by me and others, but I only had the one that got on a major label, so far. In later years, I joined Alvin Crow and the Pleasant Valley Boys and we played all over Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. Then, I took a job as Jerry Jeff 's stage manager and got to travel to 38 states until that fate- ful cab fare got me off the road. ST: How did you get the job at MSU? Gilstrap: While at A&M, I thought I could use some of Beard's con- nections in France and Italy hoping to land a job as a grow-in superin- tendent. Because of his retirement, I got to teach a course for non-turf majors called Recreational Turf, which would later have as many as 1,500 students a year and would also serve as the model for my World of Turf course here at MSU. MSU was advertising for two positions, one was Environmental Education Specialist (which Dr. Frank Rossi, now at Cornell had just left) and the other was the lawn care program coordinator. I was invited to interview in February, which I thought would be good since, as a native-born Texan, I thought I needed to see how bad the weather really was up there. I did a 2-day, intensive interview for the first position and gave a seminar. Then, I turned around and did the same thing for the second position, except this time I met with the lawn care constituency rather than the golf people. I was 45 by then, so I suspect they wanted to see how I held up for those 4 days. I even stayed over the following week- end since I wanted to get more of the feel of East Lansing. I had expressed my desire to go on for a Ph D, and after the inter- views were completed, Dr. Bruce Branham (now at Illinois) said that wouldn't be possible if I became the environmental specialist. This was because it was an extension-type job where I would be out working with the state's golf courses and wouldn't be able to complete my course work. However, if I was interested in the lawn care position, then per- haps I could start grad work after I got the program on its feet. Earlier in the year, I has interviewed for a sales position with Milor- ganite and a teaching position at Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Myrtle Beach. However, each March here in Michigan, I think about whether I'd been better off in Myrtle Beach. I had standing of- fers from both of them, but they each said they would wait until I had interviewed in Michigan. In early March, I was offered the coordina- tor position. I thought of it as having been with the Rangers or Astros and the Yankees wanted me. ST: And you didn't get your Ph. D. until you got to MSU? Gilstrap: Yes, and it took quite awhile. Turf pathologist Joe Vargas was my major professor. He and Beard had a great friendship that started back when Beard was at MSU in the 70's. Back when I was in sales, I had developed an interest in diseases and fungicides, which were very expensive. And I knew I could deliver a higher-priced order with just my pickup. I knew from listening to Vargas give talks and then later interviewing with him, that he and Beard were very differ- ent in personalities and approaches toward life. So, in my mind I thought if I could synthesize some qualities from two giants in the turf industry, I might end up with something pretty unique. Vargas Continued from page 19