One of the most startling things that can happen to any college football fan with only passing knowledge of the game is to look up onto their television screen during a highlights recap and see the Boise State Broncos football team playing at home. To be sure, the quality of play that the team delivers is definitely an attention-getter – the WAC team has been making waves in the NCAAs for some time, with particular attention drawn to them during the 2006 season. They went undefeated in that year, and their 13 victories included a Fiesta Bowl win over storied Oklahoma. That success has continued right up to the present, including another undefeated campaign in the 2009 season – a season in which many believe they had as much right to contend for a national championship as any of the other unbeaten teams at the top of the polls. Still, the team’s success still isn’t the most attention-grabbing aspect of the Boise State program. That distinction would, in the minds of most fans, center around the unique color of the football field on which the team plays – a bright shade of blue.

The History of the Stadium

Bronco Stadium remains a curiosity in college sports, as it is the only one of its kind in the sport. The color has its origins in the Stadium turf renovation that occurred two and a half decades ago. When the school discovered that it would cost $750,000 to lay down a new layer of Astroturf, they immediately looked for way in which that investment could pay some sort of dividend for the school. In the end, the decision was made to make the field look completely different than it had looked before the renovation, and the best way to gain some notoriety for the program was to make the field a unique color. Ultimately, the choice of colors to use came down to one of the two colors on the team’s uniform- either orange or blue. After deciding that the orange would be a little too off-putting, the blue Astroturf design as chosen, and thus was born a special tradition in college football.

The Real Advantage

Of course, it was only natural that there would be much speculation over the course of the next two and a half decades that perhaps the blue field, when seen against the blue of the Boise State players’ uniforms, would serve to camouflage the Broncos players and force opponents to play at a disadvantage. Comments to that effect were, however, quickly dismissed in light of the fact that many colleges and professional teams have worn green uniforms that have been similar in color to the grass on which they played, without serious suggestions that they were somehow invisible to their opponents due to the blending of the colors. One coach of another squad was so adamant that the blue field provided no real advantage to the Broncos that he is famously quoted as saying that the real disadvantage his team had in facing the Boise State team came from the fact that the players on those Broncos units had so much talent.

Permanent Blues

Despite that ringing endorsement for the field, the NCAA rules were eventually changed in order to prohibit any other school from ever using the same color scheme on its field. Fortunately for the Broncos, the rule made an explicit exception for them, leaving them as the only team that has or ever will have a blue football field.

Author Bio: Ivan Jamison is a big sports fan. You can check out his Boise State Broncos Watch or his St. Louis Cardinals Watch or his New York Yankees Watch

Category: Sports
Keywords: Boise State Broncos