Boggus grass goes on sale

HARLINGEN — Somewhere in McAllen, the memory of Boggus Stadium will live forever.
Well, as long as it’s watered.

Judy Talbert pulled up to the visitor’s parking lot at Boggus Stadium on Thursday afternoon.

She was one of the first to purchase and pick up her squares of grass that were removed from the field at Boggus.

The Harlingen school district will install artificial turf and an all-weather track at the historic stadium.

The grass that’s being removed is available for purchase by fans and Talbert was one of the first to buy her own piece of Boggus.

Talbert bought 50 squares, 16 inches by 24 inches, for $100.

“I graduated in 1985 and I was in the marching band,” said Talbert, formerly Martinez. “I marched on that field for four years. For me, it’s a piece of my past.”

Talbert now lives in McAllen where she and her husband, Jeff, are building a new home.

Jeff, a McAllen Memorial alum, will plant 25 squares in the front yard and 25 in the back.

“We’ll have a little piece of Harlingen in McAllen,” she said.

As of Thursday, about one-third of the grass at Boggus had been removed and ready for sale.

Squares are $5 each. Pallets of 50 squares are available for $100 and pallets of 150 squares are available for $250.

Several pallets were sold on the first day and several other buyers came and bought between one and 10 squares at a time.

A total of 406 squares were sold on Thursday.

Buyers also received tips on how to make sure the grass grows quickly at their homes from the man who’s been keeping the Boggus grass green since 2000.

Omar Benavidez has served as head groundskeeper for the Harlingen school district since he was hired in August of 2000.

Watching the different machines uproot the grass and remove it was a little emotional for Benavidez, he said.

“You treat it like your baby,” Benavidez said of the grass. “When we took over there were a lot of problems with the grass.

“There was goose grass in the middle of the field and grub worms were eating it all up. They wanted to replace it with Tiff grass and I said there was no need. We treated it and by 2001 we saw results.”

Benavidez, known to his friends as The Sodfather, said it took a lot of work to get the grass looking like it did the past few seasons.

“By 2003 we had the best (natural grass) field in South Texas,” Benavidez said. “Since 2002, we haven’t had any big injuries on this field. Other coaches and players always tell us how much they love our grass. We took a lot of pride in that.”

Eddie Valenzuela was one of the individuals who purchased the large pallets.
Valenzuela is actually from San Benito but his wife, Deborah, is from Harlingen.

Valenzuela said he is building a barn at his home and wanted to plant the grass around the structure.

“I’m a Greyhound,” Valenzuela said. “But it’s a piece of Harlingen for my wife. The Cardinals had a great season this year and since it was the last year they played on grass, we decided to buy some.”

For fans like Ernest Martinez, picking up his piece of Boggus was something he couldn’t pass up.

“It’s like pieces of gold,” Martinez said of the squares. “I’ve been a lifelong Cardinal fan and have seen a lot of games here. I’ll keep being a fan until I die…but Cardinal spirit will never die.”