I had a really busy afternoon and can’t muster the strength to say too much right now. I did come across this today, though, and I didn’t notice right away that Jess Neely was the subject of the photo.
As you’ve no doubt surmised, I was more interested in the sprinklers. The playing field in the new stadium was originally grass and it remained grass for twenty years, at which point Brown and Root tore it out and put in that newfangled artificial turf. Back in 1950, building the playing surface came pretty near the end of the construction process. I happen to have some photos of it being built right here in my back pocket so I can give you something else to look at tonight. The dirt that you see being put down here was scraped out in 1970 in preparation for the new field and spread around other sites on campus. It’s probably still with us, which I find comforting.
One other thing: I once stood on that artificial turf while shooting a video and it was the hottest thing I’ve ever touched that wasn’t on fire. I actually felt like my shoes were going to melt.