Is the cook college-psu grass story true ?

[Plum Street]

I heard the rumor that after dick anderson was hired he wanted rutgers stadium to have a nice grass field like Penn state. So anderson took a rutgers contingent up to happy valley and met with the Penn state folks to check out the field. Some Penn state groundskeeper tells them that they get the grass in New Jersey somewhere at a place called “cook college” or something like that.
Bureaucratic ineptness from rutgers ! The story is so bad it can’t possibly be true . But it probably is

 

[WhiteBus]

Huh. You ever been to Cook College campus and see a turf farm??

 

[Source]

Rutgers did have "a nice grass field" until it was replaced by FieldTurf in 2003 - long after Dick Anderson was head coach.

 

[JWB389]

They typically get their sod from Tuckahoe Turf Farm in Hammonton. Not sure about the Anderson days.

 

[Plum Street]

Huh. You ever been to Cook College campus and see a turf farm??

they got lots of grass on cook !

 

[Scarlet16E]

Who knows but Anderson coached when we had the 1930s Rutgers Stadium.

When the stadium was rebuilt in 1993 the new field had “Prescription Athletic Turf” with extensive drainage lines under the soil. State of the art.
But it was always a problem in rainy games with pieces of turf coming up. Seems it was never rooted very well in the sandy soil used for PAT.
Field Turf artificial surface has been much better.

Btw- I don’t think Cook college ever did commercial turf installations. most natural turf pro and college stadiums in the east use Tuckahoe Turf Farms located in south Jersey to supply the turf. Our Bataglia practice fields have this turf. I think the grass varieties in this turf may have been developed at Cook.

 

[RC1978]

Rutgers is very involved with grass and turf fields. A lot of golf courses and stadiums use the varieties developed at RU and grown by turf sellers in an around NJ.


New Jersey has stepped up, claiming a nationally prominent role in designing new grass varieties for temperate climates around the world. The Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station maintains several sites at which turf grass is grown, managed and studied, but the heart of the breeding operation that produces new breakthroughs is a 206-acre site in Adelphia (Howell Township), much of it presenting an unbroken expanse of mowed "lawn."

 

[Source]

"...Who knows but Anderson coached when we had the 1930s Rutgers Stadium...."

The October 29, 1938 Daily Home News reported before Rutgers Stadium opened in the fall the field was seeded during the summer with Kentucky bluegrass. The March 30, 1955 Targum reported the new Rutgers Stadium of 1938 could not use the rocky, native Piscataway soil. So Professor Morris Blake was called upon to find soil to make a field that would be easily managed, well drained and firm but not too compact. After his research, the field was made of soil taken from the Watchung Mountain area of Somerville, NJ.

 

[WhiteBus]

they got lots of grass on cook !

That got a lot of grass all over Rutgers. Some you know some you smoke. But no turf fields

 

[letitrip2]

My recollection is that the Cook College turf story came out during the Graber era. He was being interviewed about the renovated RU stadium that was in it's final stages of construction. During the interview he was asked about the field. He told the story that they were looking around for experts and found out that one of the foremost experts was right on campus. Of course in Rutgers style that same year we played a nationally televised game against Miami in the new stadium - it poured the days leading up to the game and the field came up in clumps requiring the staff to run onto the field all game to tamp down the field - it was a total mess. That was the last you heard about the cook college expert. Field turf

 

[NBHPRU]

My recollection is that the Cook College turf story came out during the Graber era. He was being interviewed about the renovated RU stadium that was in it's final stages of construction. During the interview he was asked about the field. He told the story that they were looking around for experts and found out that one of the foremost experts was right on campus. Of course in Rutgers style that same year we played a nationally televised game against Miami in the new stadium - it poured the days leading up to the game and the field came up in clumps requiring the staff to run onto the field all game to tamp down the field - it was a total mess. That was the last you heard about the cook college expert. Field turf

I believe they were referring to Dr. Henry Indyk.