Oxford H.S. Can’t Use The Term ’Blue Turf’ To Describe Field

The garish color may not be the tackiest thing about Boise State’s blue football field anymore. That’s because the BCS-caliber college football program is upset that Oxford High School in Oakland County wants to install its own blue turf, and they dared to refer to the playing surface as “blue turf.”

August 25, The Oakland Press: Oxford Athletic Director Mike Watson said he received a letter of notice from Boise State’s general counsel saying that the term “blue turf” was a 25-year trademark of theirs.

Watson said Boise State was never against Oxford putting in the turf or continuing to raise the funds to complete the full cost of the project, but Boise State just wanted to make sure Oxford by itself avoided the term “Blue Turf” in promoting the field and events on it.

Boise State has been playing their Bronco Stadium home games on blue artificial turf since the mid-1980s for no good reason. The rest of the nation largely became aware of the oddly-colored field with the launch of the Humanitarian Bowl in 1997. Now known as the Idaho Potato Bowl, the game is showcases’ the blue field on national television. Literally hundreds of football fans will see it every December.

Boise State trademarked the term “blue turf.” While the use of turf that is blue is perfectly acceptable on non-Boise State fields, you can’t call it blue turf. The challenge here for Oxford is to walk a linguistic fine line during a fundraising campaign for their new playing surface of a primary color other than yellow or red.

According to the Oakland Press, Oxford is probably ok if they called their field something other than from blue turf. Cornflower turf?

Arcane legal action against high school football programs isn’t the only thing that Boise State’s oddly-colored playing surface has spawned. In recent years, non-green fields have spread like a rash. At least two other college programs play their home games on non-green fields. Eastern Washington installed a red field last season, and Central Arkansas is replacing their natural grass field with a gray-and-purple FieldTurf design in advance of the 2011 campaign.

One might be tempted to call these technicolor field schemes “Mickey Mouse,” but the Walt Disney Corporation would likely send a cease-and-desist letter.