NFL Selects Winner of the Toro Super Bowl Sports Turf Training Program

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (January 13, 2003) -- The Toro Company and the NFL's Super Bowl grounds team collaborated to initiate a new program targeted at enhancing the skills of emerging sports turf professionals. The Toro Super Bowl Sports Turf Training Program will offer hands on experience in how safe playing fields are established and maintained for the highest level of football competition -- the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl Legacy

Each year since the inaugural World Championship in 1967 and the 36 succeeding Super Bowls, the NFL grounds crew has called on The Toro Company for its expertise to prep the game field as well as multiple practice facilities and fan recreational areas including the NFL Experience.

"Getting ready for a Super Bowl is a complex process," says Ed Mangan, NFL Grounds Manager for the Super Bowl "The turf has to respond to the players. Keep them safe. Help their game. It also has to survive pre-game festivities and half-time performances as challenging as running a herd of elephants through the field."

"Toro has helped us answer that challenge with products and agronomic consultation," Mangan explains. "Toro's expertise goes beyond having products to care for the turf to expertise that helps us predict how the turf will respond with the set of conditions at each host facility. And they've been there every year. That's 36 times and counting that Toro has stepped up with mowers, vehicles and equipment -- anything we needed to get ready for each Super Bowl."

Passing it On

The legacy of support culminated this year in a program to help emerging professionals gain experience in what it takes to maintain safe playing conditions. The NFL Grounds team selected the first winner of the Toro Super Bowl Sports Turf Training Program geared towards recruiting a turf student to both contribute to field preparations as well as exponentially expand a skill set to bring back to his or her community. Loyd Bowman, turf student at Michigan State University, is the winner of the first annual Toro Super Bowl Sports Turf Training Program. In January 2003, Bowman will travel to San Diego to help the grounds crew maintain practice facilities, NFL Experience areas and the game field for Super Bowl XXXVII.

For the NFL, this program is another opportunity to expand its reach into communities in unique ways. The NFL Grassroots initiative has provided more than $8 million for the construction and renovation of community football fields. But the needs of these fields don't end following construction. "In the past we've addressed many aspects of the future of the game--participation, coaching and accessibility to fields," says Jim Steeg, senior vice president of special events for the NFL. "The Toro Super Bowl Sports Turf Training Program reflects our interest in helping to provide trained turf professionals to maintain safe playing conditions at all levels of competitive football."

Toro Advances Sports Turf

The Toro Company leads the industry in providing opportunities for caretakers of sports facilities, municipal fields and school grounds to provide the safest playing conditions possible. "Toro is committed to helping provide safer playing conditions for today's athletes -- from little league competitors to professional athletes at the top of their careers," says Kendrick B. Melrose, chairman and chief executive officer of The Toro Company. "That commitment emerged decades ago with the development of agronomy expertise and it continues today through programs like the Toro Super Bowl Sports Turf Training Program."

Toro's outreach program began when James R. Watson, Ph.D. joined Toro as an agronomist in the 1950s. Now retired, Toro continues the focus with agronomist Van Cline, Ph.D. and other industry training programs. Toro is a sponsor of a turf training curriculum for high school athletic directors through the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. Annually, Toro hosts the Professional Sports Turf Symposium dedicated to turf managers with the NFL and Major League Baseball teams. Additionally, Toro maintains an on-line home for the best ideas and advice for anyone managing sports turf at Torosports.com.

In addition to the Toro Super Bowl Sports Turf Training Program, Toro offers the Dr. James R. Watson Scholarships administered by the Foundation for Safer Athletic Field Environments and the Sports Turf Managers Association for turf students dedicated to sports turf maintenance.

Toro's products are also focused on providing tools for safe playing conditions for all levels of competition. A new line of Toro Workman® vehicles can be equipped with an infield groomer. These do-anything vehicles allow schools and municipal organizations to improve their sports facilities through grooming and conditioning clay areas, while leveraging a purchase into a machine that can also haul materials or plow snow.

In 2002, Toro introduced new Groundsmaster® products that deliver a better look to turf mowed in the traditional rotary fashion. The Groundsmaster 4500-D or 4700-D is equipped with striping rollers that enhance the field appearance so parents and players alike can enjoy a well-manicured field at all levels of athletics.

The Toro Company, with $1.35 billion in sales annually, is a leading provider of outdoor maintenance and beautification products for home, recreation, and commercial landscapes around the world. Together with its distributors, Toro provides innovative products, agronomic expertise and exemplary service that helps professional turf managers maintain their landscapes. Visit the company at www.toro.com.