The grass is always greener for Randy Graff.

• Author: BRONIKOWSKI, LYNN
• Position: Brief Article

RANDY GRAFF GETS PAID TO WATCH THE GRASS GROW.

It is no ordinary grass. Rather, it's a special blend, known as Princeton 105, that will be the tough turf of Invesco Field at Mile High. Graff has grown it to withstand the rigors of the NFL, to survive the scrutiny of Bronco fans and to look good on TV.

"There are more than 300 varieties of bluegrass and we try to get grasses that complement each other in color, growth characteristics and, in the case of sports grasses, are very durable and aggressive in repairing themselves," said Graff, who founded Graff Turf Farm in 1979 in Fort Morgan, where he grew up.

He began with 60 acres and today farms 250 acres, with a possibility of expanding to 400. He fell into sod farming after graduating from Fort Morgan High School, working at a Denver sod farm and soaking up all he could learn, including the fact that sod is a crop that comes back after hailstorms, a plague for Colorado's Eastern Plains.

"It was a crash-course, two-year education and I ended up coming back home to Fort Morgan," said Graff. "I'm just a farm boy at heart."

While growing sod for homes is the heart of his business, Graff got into the field of sports grasses in 1994 when he grew sod for Coors Field, Chicago's Soldier Field and Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals. He re-sod Coors Field last fall and did the University of Colorado's conversion from artificial turf to sod, also handing the University of Nebraska's baseball stadium.

"There isn't a farm that has done as many stadiums as we have," said...