For the first time, another college football team will play its home games on a surface the same color as Boise State’s. The university has trademarked the famous blue turf, but has allowed a Japanese school to install a similar surface.
Officials at Hosei University in Kawasaki, Japan yesterday dedicated the school’s new playing field. The surface is the latest display of sharing between the two schools. They have a mostly-academic partnership that dates back six years. But Doctor William Parrett in Boise State’s College of Education – who helped develop the partnership - says the relationship extended into football five years ago. That’s when Hosei sent its coaching staff to Boise to observe the Broncos’ annual spring practice. The idea to export the “blue” grew from that.
"They've talked about it ever since they started coming.," Parrett says. "We're also their colors. They're blue and orange."
According to Boise State, 65 students have participated in exchange programs between the two schools. Boise State hosted a group of 21 Japanese sports medicine and health studies majors and three faculty members from Hosei last fall.