Reviewed by: Cindy Hatcher
What it takes to get Auburn’s Pat Dye Field ready for game day
Reading time: 5 minutes
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When Auburn kicks off on game day, thousands of eyes will be on the players, the scoreboard and the action. Few will be thinking about the grass—but someone has to.
At Auburn University, that work starts with the Turfgrass Management team, and it’s a perfect example of how Auburn’s College of Agriculture students can take what they learn in the classroom and put it into practice on one of college football’s biggest stages.
We caught up with Eric Kleypas, Auburn’s Director of Athletic Turf & Grounds, to get the inside scoop on what goes into preparing Pat Dye Field for game day, from its unusual slope to a few buried pieces of Auburn history.
Auburn’s unique football field
What makes up the soil under a football field? This is a question that never crossed my mind. But during my freshman year at Auburn, a mandatory “Soils & Life” science credit unexpectedly gave me an answer—and, as it turns out, the science beneath a football field goes deeper than just grass.
At Pat Dye Field, Bermuda grass sits atop a sandy mix of soil underneath—all carefully engineered to withstand thousands of cleats, torrential Alabama rain and the general action that comes with a full football season. And there’s one feature that makes Auburn’s field particularly unique: a 1.4% crown, or slope.
“That’s a really steep crown compared to most athletic fields. Some of the newer athletic fields might have closer to a 0.5% crown versus ours at 1.4%.
What that does is it allows water to really shed when it rains. It’s an older field, so the drain system is pretty dated but it still works for us.”
Eric Kleypas, Auburn Director of Athletic Turf & Grounds
That drainage system has some history of its own: it was installed around 1981, when the grounds crew installed drain lines that connect to the campus storm drain system.
Today, modern athletic fields typically use laser grading, gravel layers and wider spacing between drain lines, but Auburn’s tried-and-true system continues to help keep the field playable.
What does an Auburn game week look like?
Game week is when the pace really picks up. Kleypas and his team begin with the basics: mowing and fertility. Around Tuesday, the team typically applies a foliar fertilizer containing nitrogen, potassium and calcium to help the turf handle the game day action.
Then comes one of the most recognizable parts of the game week: painting the field! The team uses large plastic stencils to create Auburn’s field logos and markings.
“We put down stencils, and once you pull the plastic up, it’s just an old fashioned game of connect the dots.”
Eric Kleypas, Auburn Director of Athletic Turf & Grounds
Painting typically starts Wednesday, and depending on the week’s schedule, anywhere from one to four paint machines may be in use. The Turfgrass Management team doesn’t do it alone—Auburn turfgrass students also help paint the field between classes.
That hands-on experience is one of the biggest perks of studying turfgrass at Auburn.
Fun Fact: Buried horseshoes at Jordan-Hare?
Here’s one piece of Pat Dye Field history you probably won’t find in the playbook:
When Jordan-Hare Stadium was originally built, the the site was in a natural depression that had to be filled before construction could begin. Some of that soil was brought over from Broun Hall, one of Auburn’s engineering buildings.
Years later, while working on the field, crews began finding horseshoes buried beneath the surface. Curious about how they got there, they looked into the history of the stadium’s construction and discovered the horseshoes actually belonged to mules that had worked around Broun Hall.
As the soil was moved from Broun Hall to fill the low spot where Jordan-Hare now stands, the mule shoes came with it. They eventually became buried beneath the field, where they remained until crews uncovered them decades later.
Beneath all of the science, tools and carefully maintained Bermuda grass, Pat Dye Field also holds a few remnants of Auburn’s history.
Opening the door to major opportunities for Auburn students
Kleypas knows firsthand how Auburn’s turfgrass program translates to a career. He earned his bachelor’s in agronomy and soils with an emphasis in turfgrass management and a minor in business in 1999, followed by a master’s in agriculture in 2002. He joined Auburn in October 2002 and remains there today.
And students in Auburn’s four-year Turfgrass Management program have opportunities to learn directly from professionals like him.
The Turfgrass Management program boasts some major stats, like:
- 100% job placement rate
- 100% internship rate
Several alumni now have careers as sports field managers for fields across the U.S., including the Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, Atlanta United, Texas A&M University and Auburn University.
Check out our video on Youtube:
Want to turn your interest in agriculture into a hands-on career? Explore Auburn College of Agriculture and see where a degree in turfgrass management could take you.
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