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I started my research by going back to the original tapes of my interviews with Athletic Director Dan O’Brien and Dana Johnson. The product used to surface the field is called Prestige, while the track is surfaced in a material marketed under the name Mondo.

Hamline had been looking at three alternative products for the field, one of which being the same turf used on the HHH Metrodome, but ended up choosing Prestige and Mondo because of cost and labor concerns.

Everything here seemed to be on the up-and-up. The crew who applied both surfaces seem to have
known what they were doing, and both products are high quality. Mondo was even used to layer the tracks in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

But what of the story that players hated the surface while administrators and coaches liked it? For the answer to this question, I went to three football players, defensive lineman Chris Cushenbery, outside linebacker Paul Kleese, and offensive lineman Matt Thibolbeaux.

The overwhelming opinion from my time spent with the three was best summed up by Cushenbery’s statement, “It’s awesome!”

There were, of course, some minor concerns, such as Kleese’s belief that the surface is very hot. The surface is prone to heating up very quickly, because it is sitting atop buried rubber and pebbles. Kleese said. Still, there was a general consensus between the three that this was a good trade off. After all, the turf and surface beneath never get too cold or hard, like ground and grass would in Minnesota winters.
Rain, apparently, also has almost no effect on the surface.

“You don’t slip, slide, or sink like on grass. You’re just wet,” said Thibolbeaux.

The rumor that the surface is extremely painful to land on because there was little soft material put under it is untrue, Thibolbeaux said.

“It depends on how hard you land, and if you’re getting hit.”

If an enormous football player is crushing you to the ground, it doesn’t really matter what you’re landing on, it will hurt.

“We have the best complete stadium in the MIAC. Even the scoreboard is amazing,” Thibolbeaux said.
So, it turns out that the rumors about misspent money, poor quality and pain on the field were all untrue.
The products are all high quality, and are generally liked by everyone from players to administrators. The university can rent the field to high schools for football games, and recruiters have some eye-candy to brag about to recruits.

Still, the teams that play on this new, and well-liked field, will have to live up to its reputation. The one thing that has never been in question here is that Klas Field looks fantastic, and that can’t be bad for team moral.“Hey, you look good; you feel good; you play good,” Cushenbery said.