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/753045
FACILITY & OPERATIONS 26 SportsTurf | December 2016 www.sportsturfonline.com WHAT'S CHANGED IN SPORTS TURF MANAGEMENT IN 40 YEARS — AND WHAT HASN'T others who took me under their wing and guided me through a 20-year career. Everything I know about turfgrass I learned from him. He was my mentor and friend who patiently guided me through many minefields. It has been more than 26 years since my first day at Tennessee and a great deal has changed and remained the same in our industry. I hope I do not come across as a cantankerous old man, but I do care for our profession and its future. AMAZING TECHNOLOGY The most amazing change that I have witnessed is the new technology that has developed. You need to know that I started before the Internet became a part of our daily routines. My best friend and close confidante during those early years was Bucky Trotter, who started at Kentucky about the same time I started at Tennessee. We sent our first e-mail to each other: "Ain't this a wonder." There have been books written on how technology has changed the world. As a person who does not understand Twitter I have no intention of trying to explain the role technology has played in changing our profession. The most basic and important turf equipment, such as aerators and reel mowers, was around long before I started. (What ever happened to the wheelbarrow?) It's just that the equipment manufacturers are manufacturing better and more effective equipment (along with other innovations) that make our jobs much easier. Obviously there have been other great advances such as more efficient irrigation systems to help use this precious resource in a more environmentally conscious manner. I was lucky to manage bermudagrass my entire career. I always had a tremendous amount of respect for my friends who had to deal with cool-season grasses. I am proof that you have to be a real dope to screw up bermudagrass. From a chemical and fertility standpoint during my career, the development of POLYON fertilizer technology has had the most benefit from a fertility standpoint. The expanded use of Primo plant growth regulator has had a profound impact, not only on sports turf, but on golf courses as well. When I started, it was very difficult to transition from ryegrass-overseeded turf, especially as the ryegrass varieties improved. The development of the sulfonylurea herbicide ■ BY BOB CAMPBELL, CSFM I t was on an April afternoon in 1990 that I sat across the desk from University of Tennessee Athletic Director Doug Dickey when he offered me a position to manage the athletic fields. I was the first person hired by Tennessee in probably 40 years whose primary responsibility was to be a sports turf manager. I had a tremendous amount of respect combined with fear for Coach Dickey, who was a Hall of Fame football coach at Tennessee and Florida and one of the last college athletic directors who actually understood sports and the importance of the game. He was a leader, a man you wanted on your side when things got tough, so tough that he once turned down letting the Rolling Stones perform at Neyland Stadium because he was not willing to take the chance of damaging the field during Peyton Manning's last season. He offered me the job, saying he would equal my teaching pay. That was acceptable, but considerably less than I was making when combined with my pay as the groundskeeper for the Knoxville Blue Jays, Toronto's Double A baseball team. I quickly accepted, believing he might withdraw the offer. I was 45 at the time with two children and this was my dream job. He proceeded to tell me what was expected and that basically I could not fire any of the hourly state employees working with me. As I prepared to leave, he said, "Don't forget I can fire you tomorrow." Welcome to big time college athletics! Needless-to-say, as an old high school coach with a major in accounting, I was definitely in over my head. I am especially grateful to Dr. Tom Samples and many Doug Dickey, former UT football coach and athletic director Dr. Tom Samples, University of Tennessee