Whether you go to college at Boise State University or couldn’t point to Boise on a map, the Broncos have established a name for themselves nationwide due to one special aspect.
The blue turf.
Boise State’s trademark made its debut in 1986 and has continued to gain national recognition ever since.
“In an industry where everyone’s competing for eyeballs, recruits and fans, The Blue has been something to separate us and we’ve used that to our bank,” said Spencer Jahn, Boise State’s trademark licensing specialist. “It’s just been such an amazing tool for us to stand out and build a community.”
The field put Boise State on the map for college football and has aided the Broncos in recruiting top players from all across the country.
The birth of The Blue
The man behind the idea of installing a blue football field was Gene Bleymaier, Boise State’s athletic director from 1982-2011.
The thought came to Bleymaier on a plane in 1986. He was overlooking the green turf, and he realized that he really didn’t want to spend $750,000 on another boring green field.
“He thought to himself, ‘what can I do to make Boise State stand out against other teams?’” said Pam Earl, a volunteer. “As he flew over, they looked down at the green field and he started to wonder what a blue field would look like.”
From then on Bleymaier did everything he could to find out if a blue field would be possible, and eventually John Keiser, Boise State’s president at the time, made the decision to go with blue.
The blue turf was installed in 1986 and marked the first non-green artificial football field in the country.
Becoming a trademark
On Nov. 10, 2009, the blue turf got an official trademark registration, meaning that Boise State owns the rights to any colored field.
In other words, any middle school, high school or college in the world that wants to put in a football field outside of the typical green color, has to get it approved by Boise State first.
“When consumers think of a blue field we want them to associate that with Boise State,” said Jahn. “And through all the materials we submitted, we were able to prove that to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.”
Jahn and the rest of his licensing program took several factors into account when approving a colored field such as the school level, the color, the division and who the field is used by.
Although the Broncos want the blue field to remain distinctive to Boise State, in 2012 they allowed Hosei University, a college in Japan to put in a similar surface.
Boise State has since built a connection with Hosei University and 65 students have engaged in exchange programs between the two colleges, according to Boise State Public Radio.
Nevertheless, Boise State remains the only blue football field in the world of Division I college football in the United States.
Making a name for itself
The Blue quickly gained national popularity and became a symbol of the program’s blue-collar work ethic. However, not all the attention was initially positive.
Some thought that geese would mistake the field for a lake and be injured or killed trying to dive in while others thought that the blue uniforms gave the Broncos an unfair advantage because they “blended in”.
Now, 38 years and five new blue turf installments later, The Blue stands out as an iconic landmark in the world of college football.
Last year about 17,000 visitors from all 50 states and 37 additional countries set aside time to see the attraction.
“People from all over the world come to see The Blue,” said Earl. “A lot of people plan their vacations around it because it was on their bucket list. We’ve seen grown men cry.”
In 2002, on top of its color, The Blue became famous for the Broncos’ winning record of 108-33 in the first 20 years of its existence.
For the past two years in a row, The Blue was named the number one Sports Fan Attraction in USA TODAY, proving how important the field is to the fan experience.
On Jan. 4, 2025, Boise State broke ground on The North End Zone Project, an upcoming milestone for The Blue.
This project will aid in Boise State’s vision to redefine the game day experience for both student-athletes and fans.
“Within almost 40 years, it’s grown into such a great way for people to identify us across the world whether you know college football or you don’t,” said Cheryl Oestreicher, Boise State’s head of collections and archives. “It just keeps growing and growing.”
