Fellow Missoulian employee Chris Arvish called my attention to this quote from a Spokane newspaper story about the ongoing “controversy” or discussion about Eastern Washington’s proposal to install red artificial turf at Woodward Field.

“If there is one reason on this entire planet that makes me feel certain we’re doing the right thing with this red turf project, it’s because Montana hates it.”

The comment was attributed to Marc Hughes, EWU’s associate athletic director for development. He’s the one who will be trying to raise enough dough to supplement the $500,000 contribution former EWU and current NFL star Michael Roos and his wife made to kick start the effort.

Talk about the Grizzly tail wagging the Eagle. But it’s not unusual to have what the Grizzlies say and do influence what other programs do.

EWU already has achieved one benefit from the proposal. The publicity has been worth its weight in turf, at least so far. Whether it’s worth enough to allay the fears of some that the turf, in time, might fade to pink – a fear that’s been countered by potential suppliers – time will tell.

If EWU really hopes to have the new turf installed by this fall, the money will have to show up sooner rather than later. There’s a lot of prep work that goes into removing natural grass and replacing it with fake, no matter what the color.

Other teams in the Big Sky and elsewhere can only hope the red rug doesn’t make Eastern’s football team better. It’s already tough enough.

To see the entire article, go to http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/feb/09/national-spotlight-on-eastern/

- Bill Schwanke