Tartan Turf cancels mud
By DAVE GOSSER
Kansan Sports Writer
KU football fans will no longer see mud-splattered jerseys and faces or brown rivers in the end zones in the Jawhawk football stadium. The athletic department has invested $220,000 to clean up the pollution which has been harbored in the present stadium since its existence by installing Tartan Turf, a man-made playing surface free of dirt and grass.
Tartan Turf was created by the 3M company (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) of St. Paul, Minnesota. The Turf, or artificial grass, is visible to the fans in the stands, but there's more to the playing surface than meets the eye.
The base of the Turf is called Tartan Surfacing Material. This half-inch thick section is the impact cushion, and is by far the most important of the two parts. It is an all-weather non-slip, resin compound. Surfacing Material holds the players cleats. The all-weather track circling the football field at the stadium is essentially Tartan Surfacing Material without the Turf.
An inch of concrete asphalt provides rigidity below the Surfacing Material. An inch and a half of asphalt glue binds the concrete to six inches of gravel below. Twelve inches of chemically treated soil is under the rocks. A total of 21 inches separates the Turf from the natural soil.
The decision to modernize the football stadium was not made at the last minute. KU alttic director Wade Stinson said, "The idea to install Tartan Turf has been in our minds for some time. Our final decision was made in January of this year. We had reports from other people acquainted with Tartan Turf and they were pleased with its performance. We received information from the 3M company and decided that Tartan Turf was a good product."
The 3M company installs the Turf and the Surfacing Material. The Hamm Construction Company of Topeka was responsible for the soil base and applying the crushed rock. The Lawrence Asphalt Company was in charge of building the concrete base.
Hugh Sheridan of Hamm Construction said his corporation began working in early June. "It took us 10 days to complete the soil base and about another 10 to finish the crushed rock. We were set back for two weeks because of unsuitable working conditions resulting from heavy rains," he said.
Last Saturday, workmen from Lawrence Asphalt began laying the concrete base. Travis Glass, supervisor, estimates two weeks will be needed to complete his project. Then the 3M company will lay the Surfacing Material and Turf.
It is a common belief among football players that Tartan Turf will reduce knee injuries. The 3M company makes no injury reduction claim, though it seems likely knee injuries would decrease.
Athletic officials also approve of Tartan Turf for other reasons. Stinson said, "Tartan Turf is a superior product itself, and economically as well. The original Surfacing Material will last after I'm dead and the Turf will need replacing only about every 15 years. The maintenance costs
over a comparable period of time will be less than those of a nonsynthetic field."
Photo by Greg Sorber
The University will keep the Tartan Turf covered in the summertime to prevent the sun's ultra-violet rays from damaging the field. KU intramural programs will be allowed to use the field when not in use by the athletic department.
KU archaeologists—
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head Ranch where the party is staying, to the site about six miles away.
Carrillo said there were 28 sites located in the reservoir area. In finding a probable dwelling site, he said, the archaeologist walks through fields usually near streams or old stream meanders, looking for chipped clert, or pieces of pottery. When a site is found, the earth in the plow zone is stripped. Then a careful uncovering of the soil is done by scraping away thin slices of earth and working with trowels when an object is found.
After digging through the plow zone there is a color and sometimes a textural change in the soil. Marshall said this soil was the sterile zone because the roots of grasses do not grow into it.
In the sterile zone, Carrillo said, the archaeologist looks for stains which indicate where posts of Indian dwellings were. When post molds are found they are marked by stakes and later half of the stain is sectioned vertically. The sectioned stain usually looks funnel shaped.
Marshall said the artifacts were taken back to Arrowhead ranch where they are labeled and a
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description written. Later this winter the information will be analyzed at KC.
"The real work," Marshall said, "starts in the lab where all the information is compared." He will write a written report to be submitted to the Park Service. Ultimately, he said, archaeologists will try to reconstruct the society.
The site they are now working on, Marshall said, is a middle woodland complex. The Indians, he said, migrated from the eastern portion of the United States to Kansas. He said that on the site there were several different periods when Indians occupied and then abandoned the site.
The students have already worked on two sites in different fields this summer. On their last excavation they were digging in a corn field but had to quit before excavations were completed because the corn was getting too high. Carrillo said the humidity would have made it unbearable to work there.
Another aspect of the work is callouses and blisters acquired when shoveling the dirt. Chris Dill, LarMoure, North Dakota senior, said that after a while his hands formed to fit the shovel. Sore hands, Kathy King, San Antonio, Tex. graduate student, said, is the reason archaeologists do not write home more often.
A long period of dry weather
Pepper Rodgers' football squad may use the artificial surface to practice on. If the Jayhawks are playing on an artificial field that week, a practice session on the Tartan Turf will enable the players to adapt to the faster Tartan surface. Also, if bad weather exists during the practice week, the Turf may serve as the practice field.
The addition of KU to the synthetic scene provides half of the schools in the Big Eight Conference with artificial football fields. The other three schools are Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. As a result KU will play seven of its 11 games on artificial grass next year, the first with Washington State at Lawrence, Sept. 12.
baked the earth the group was digging. As Dave Ballou, Lexington, Mass. graduate student and Larry Schmits, Seneca senior opened a new section of earth, Ballou commented that it was a good thing he wore his boots that day.
But on this site there is a redeeming value, the Arrowhead Ranch which Carrillo found for the party.
"This is really luxury compared to other sites." Miss Heavin said. On many archaeological excavations the members have to camp.
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