By Mark Wallington
UNLV Assistant SID

One of the highlights of the current $18 renovation of Sam Boyd Stadium is the replacement of the so-called "Magic Carpet" retractable artificial turf that has been in place since 1985. That means this fall, UNLV will be playing on natural grass for its home games for the first time since 1972. The Rebels will become the 76th school among the 114 current Division I-A football institutions to use a grass field and assures that the new Mountain West Conference will be artificial-free.

UNLV's only appearance on a non-grass surface in 1999 will come in the season opener at North Texas on Sept. 2. That is a big change from a year ago when the Rebels played seven of their 11 games, including five at home, on the fake stuff.

Sam Boyd was the first stadium in the world to feature a Monsanto Corp. outdoor retractable turf, which gave the facility its multi-purpose capability. The Magic Carpet was installed at a cost of $1.2 million through a generous grant by the Sam Boyd Family and an appropriation subsidy from the LVCA. Made of heavy nylon carpet, the 80,000-pound surface simply rolled out onto the field at the push of a button in not much longer than one hour.

With this summer's installation of grass, a new field design also was necessary. Out are the solid-black end zones and heavily detailed center logo. In are the grass-preserving red arrows in the ends and classic UNLV lettering at midfield. The arrows are part of an overall theme developed by the school's Sports Marketing Department to match Head Coach John Robinson's new arrow-striped helmets, jerseys and game pants.

Also moving to grass this fall is The University of Colorado, a change that helps push the nation's percentage of grass fields to its highest level (67 percent) since the NCAA first kept records in 1978.