University of Central Arkansas Announces Plans for Purple & Gray Turf

(Image courtesy University of Central Arkansas)

According to the University of Central Arkansas' website, the school has decided to make the change from natural grass to artificial turf. Purple and gray artificial turf.

Beginning mid-April, Central Arkansas will replace its natural grass football field with a GeoGreen replicated grass surface from GeoSurfaces – the same company which installed the turf at the school’s baseball stadium last fall.

But unlike the baseball – and most – turf, the surface of First Security Field at Estes Stadium will not contain even a trace of green. Instead the school has opted for a unique design incorporating the Central Arkansas school colors of purple and gray, with black and white accents.

Follow CST on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

In contrast from solid-colored surfaces such as the famed blue turf of Football Bowl Subdivision power Boise State and – more recently – the red turf at reigning Football Championship Subdivision national champion Eastern Washington, the playing surface at Central Arkansas will feature purple and gray alternating in five-yard sections from the goal lines out to the 45-yard lines. Between the 45s will be a 10-yard gray segment with the logo – which will span 20 yards – centered at midfield. The end zones will be black with “Bears” in white lettering with secondary bear paw logos on either side, giving it an appearance unrivaled anywhere in college football.

“The decision to install synthetic turf was one that came quickly,” said Dr. Brad Teague, Director of Athletics. “We decided to use that opportunity to do something unique. We didn’t want to copy Boise State or Eastern Washington, so we developed our own color scheme. This scheme was vetted out to our many constituent groups and the vast majority of those groups chose this non-traditional color scheme for our turf. Our student-athletes are the most excited about this look, but our donor base was also very positive about the design.”

Clint Conque, entering his 12th season as head coach, sees numerous advantages for the UCA program with the installation of the turf.

“First and foremost, it’s very functional and gives us a consistent surface for practice every day as well as on game day,” said Conque, the winningest coach in school history. “Certainly for our fans it brings some uniqueness and really rings of school spirit with the purple and gray and the touch of black in the end zones. I think overall everybody’s excited.”

Included in that excitement are recruits.

“It may give us a bump in recruiting,” Conque said. “This recruiting class liked the ideas we presented to them during the recruiting part of the year. Because of the uniqueness and visibility, there’s a lot of excitement and buzz going to be generated. Plus, it’s just an awesome-looking field. We’ve got a chance to separate ourselves a little bit from our peers in recruiting, which is the lifeblood of what we do. We’re always looking for that extra edge in the recruiting process. We live in a different era and they like things that make you go ‘wow’. This field definitely has a ‘wow’ factor to it.”

Current players are equally as enthusiastic about the new surface, which will be ready well ahead of the 2011 season that begins at home on Sept. 1.

“They showed us the final draft of the turf and we’re really excited,” said senior offensive lineman Matt Dickerson of Monroe, La. “I was shocked at first, I was thinking it was going to just be something more normal. The black end zones and purple and gray alternating was surprising, but I like it. It’s something different and shows we’re not trying to be just an everyday school. We’re trying to do something different, trying to do bigger and better things here. We’re trying to grow and take this organization to the next level and I think this is one step toward that.”

The staff of CST really doesn't know what to think about this purple and gray field. We get Boise State's blue field. And we give Eastern Washington the nod for copying the uniqueness. But now we see a trend developing that may not be good for the traditional game of football. Let's just leave football fields green, can we?

View the full story and video about the change at University of Central Arkansas' athletic website.

Follow CST on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.