SPORTS LEGEND: Boise State’s blue turf causes duck to think it is water, leading ducks to dive into the turf and die.

Bronco Stadium, the current home of the Boise State Broncos, was built in 1970.

It was a typical large college stadium. A nice facility, but nothing really distinctive. That changed in 1986, when the school adopted a new sort of astroturf for the stadium – the turf was colored blue, the only stadium in Divison I in the NCAA to have a turf that color (heck, the only stadium with turf a color other than green).

Since it opened in 1986, a persistent story has sprung up – ducks, thinking that the blue turf is water, dive into the turf and are killed.

It’s not an all together ridiculous idea, as ducks and other birds ARE pretty dumb, and they’re certainly known to fly into glass windows not knowing that they are, you know, windows and not just air.

However, there has never been a recorded incident of a duck crashing into the turf.

That said, in 2007, Head Coach Chris Petersen said he discovered a dead duck at the stadium, but he does not know when or how the duck died.

So, it’s a tough one. I think the fact that no one in 23 years has been able to confirm it happened (and you would think that if it happened, SOMEone would have come out about it in over two decades!) is JUST enough to overcome the fact that Peterson DID find a dead duck at the stadium.

So, tentatively…

STATUS: False.

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