Wrong, the Orange Bowl had artificial turf from 1970-1976...
Absolutely. I guess I take things for granted, since that was my era. I thought the Poly Turf was as well known as the result of the 1972 season.
Seemingly everybody was switching to artificial turf in that era. All the major college programs like Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Auburn, Texas and you name it played on the fake stuff. So did the Gators. The west coast was the exception. California Berkeley had artificial turf but nobody else in the state.
It's funny...I think I could rattle off every major college program and whether they were grass or turf in that era. Then especially once I moved to Las Vegas in 1984. Lots of great betting systems utilizing switch from grass to turf.
Anyway, the Orange Bowl held lots of high school games along with Dolphins and Canes in the late '60s. Miami High played there, etc. The field was chewed up late in the season. I attended the Jets/Colts Super Bowl as a 4th grader and was amazed at the restoration of the field compared to mere weeks earlier. Remarkable.
Astro Turf was the famous brand. It was in the Astrodome and elsewhere. The chief competitor was called Titan Turf. Everybody was amazed and somewhat baffled when the Orange Bowl decided on Poly Turf, which wasn't well known and basically had no history. I guess the City of Miami made the call. Probably cheaper.
From the outset there were issues. The bristles quickly became matted. Loads of complaints from opposing players. Slipping and sliding. That first version was so slippery when hot and dry that huge hoses were used during breaks in play to water the field. I'm not kidding. This wasn't immediate but once the trend became well known and obvious. The Dolphins in general had fewer slips than the opposition but Mercury Morris on occasion would attempt a sharp cut on a sweep and his feet would come out from under him. He'd be touched down then leap up in frustration. Mercury had a rivalry with O.J. Simpson in those years so every yard and touchdown mattered to him.
That first version lasted only a couple of years. The second Poly Turf was opposite. Over correction. It was slippery when wet. Great.
I walked out onto both versions of Poly Turf in the east end zone before Canes home games. It was simple. You could go down there while pretending to access the 4000 seat temporary bleachers in that end zone, set up once Dolphin crowd needs were overflowing the 76,000 capacity. There were orange trees in that end zone. We'd play catch with oranges and intentionally throw them into the end zone so we had excuse to go onto the field. Those bristles were even more matted and flat than I'd been led to believe. It was hard to believe pro games and major college games were being played on that garbage.
The color would fade also. Poly Turf was installed elsewhere like the Patriots stadium in Foxboro but it seemed to have particular issues with the Miami weather and all the high school usage. Poly Turf engineers were oft contacted by Miami media. Tons of excuses. Sometimes it was laughable when at first they would try to deny the issues, like the slippage. They would count slips in games played on grass and other versions of artificial turf. Nobody took them seriously. It became a punch line on local sports talk radio. Yes, that existed in that era. But only at night. Prime time. WIOD from 8 PM to 11 PM. Sometimes 7 PM start, depending on baseball. The Yankees were broadcast locally. Saturday night could be 7 to midnight sports talk.
1975 was a transitional season after Csonka, Kiick and Warfield left. Nobody really knew what to expect. Fullback was the priority, believe it or not. Every Dolphin fan was fixated on how to replace Csonka and therefore maintain as much offensive continuity as possible. Shula tried two guys with Colt backgrounds -- squatty Don Nottingham and versatile Norm Bulaich. Some games it worked, others it looked sad. The entire team was in pretend mode.
Seemingly without warning or much public discussion it was announced that Poly Turf would be replaced beginning in 1976. I remember being very pleased, although I had never heard of the replacement... Prescription Athletic Turf. Sounded high tech, with underground tubes that could water or remove water. Series of tubes, that sounds like the internet according to the late Ted Stevens.
Is PAT still available? I'm not sure why we assumed that would not work given a roof while accepting that the current mess would work.
As sorry as Poly Turf was, I still hold some fondness for it since it coincided with the Dolphins glory era, and perhaps played a supporting role.
Looking back it's weird that artificial turf swept the country in that era, and so did a wonderful reliance on run oriented football. I absolutely loved the Sooner wishbone daring pitches and speed around the corner every Saturday. We never imagined that a pantyhose passing era was nearby.