ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997 TAG: 9703060053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EMILY DUNNE THE ROANOKE TIMES
The head groundskeeper for the Chicago Bears was in Roanoke this week and offered advice to gardeners: Fertilize and aerate your lawn.
When people play on Ken Mrock's lawn, it typically costs a couple of thousand dollars to repair it. And if the the grass is torn up from play in heavy rain, repairs could cost up to $100,000.
Of course, Mrock's is no ordinary lawn. It's the size of a football field. And the play that goes on there is worth millions of dollars.
Mrock is the grounds superintendent for the Chicago Bears. He said he and his two assistants "do it all," from fertilization and mowing to painting meticulously straight chalk lines. And as the assistant director of stadium relations, Mrock also is in charge of game-day operations, including security placement, at Soldier Field, the Bears' home turf.
"We set the stage for the players," he said. "They're the stars."
Mrock was in town Wednesday for Landscape Supply Inc.'s spring seminar at the Hotel Roanoke, where he explained how he helped develop the Bears' new practice facility, Halas Hall, in Lake Forest, Ill.
To keep the grass from freezing during Chicago's harsh winters, the $1million field is equipped with a heating system, which Mrock modeled after systems he had studied in Sweden. Although Europeans have been heating soccer fields for 30 years, Mrock said, his system is the first of its kind in North America.
Mrock experimented with a small test plot before recommending the system. "After two years, I said, 'Let's go for the whole ball of wax.'''
And what is "the whole ball of wax?" Fourteen miles of propane-heated tubing underneath 80,000 square feet of Kentucky bluegrass. The system is divided into 14 zones, allowing Mrock to heat only certain areas at a time, and heat sensors indicate each zone's temperature.
In the winter, Mrock will heat the field to about 50 degrees, and in the summer, he will use the tubing to get air to the grass roots.
A well-maintained practice field, Mrock said, is important to players and can be used as a recruiting tool. "We have to give them game conditions every day," he said. "We've got about 4,000 pounds of players running [on the field]. It's gonna get beat up."
The practice field is covered with a tarpaulin during winter months and heavy rainstorms, Mrock said. "We never let any snow hit this field whatsoever," he said. He regularly removes snow from the tarps, and brushes up the mashed-down turf.
Routine post-game maintenance at Soldier Field usually takes about four hours, Mrock said, but at times the damage has been so severe he has had to work 24 hours straight.
To repair a torn-up field, he and his assistants lay 2,000-pound rolls of turf that are 2 inches thick, 4 feet wide and 30 feet long. "There's no way [the turf is] gonna move," he said. "You can lay out a field in a couple of days and be ready to play, because at 12:01 and 30 seconds, they will be kicking off, come hell or high water."
Mrock recommends some of the same techniques he uses on the playing field for home lawn care: a good fertilization program and aeration - making small holes in the lawn to allow air and nutrients to reach the roots.
"The back yard usually catches hell," he said. "That's the same with us. You've got kids running around on your lawn. I've got huge kids running around on my lawn - with cleats on."
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Mrock. color.by CNB