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WILKES-BARRE — When he was a kid, George Toma used to carry “a limer” from Edwardsville to Wilkes-Barre to line the field at Meyers Stadium.
Toma’s uncle, John Yarish, was the athletic director at Plains High School, and he bought the limer for Toma.
On Thursday, Feb. 2, a day known more for Punxsutawney Phil’s weather prognostications, Toma celebrated his 88th birthday in Houston, Texas, where he is once again leading the grounds crew to prepare the field for Super Bowl LI — as he has for all 51 Super Bowls.
And Toma is quick to acknowledge that he has come a long, long way from those days of carrying that limer to Meyers Stadium.
Toma grew up on Swallow Street in Edwardsville, and he has lived in Kansas City since 1957. That’s where he went to work for Lamar Hunt, who founded the American Football League and recommended Toma to do the field preparations for the first Super Bowl in 1967 between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs. Back then, the game was called the “World Championship,” becoming the Super Bowl in 1969, when Joe Namath’s New York Jets defeated Lou Michaels and the Baltimore Colts.
Toma has been the head groundskeeper for every Super Bowl since — Sunday being his and the NFL’s 51st.
Toma tells the story of how Hunt came up with Super Bowl as the game’s name. Seems his daughter was playing with a Super Ball in Hunt’s office — he asked what it was and she told him. Toma said the idea then popped into Hunt’s head — Super Ball, Super Bowl.
Toma’s father died when George was 10 and his neighbor, Stan Scheckler, who was the groundskeeper at Artillery Park for the Wilkes-Barre Barons of the Class A Eastern League, took Toma under his wing, teaching Toma everything he knew.
In 1946, Toma became head groundskeeper at Artillery Park, holding that position until 1950 when he entered the military and went to Korea. He returned in 1953 to find no baseball at Artillery — Wilkes-Barre had lost its franchise to Reading. Toma would find work at several ballparks, ending up in Kansas City and, as they say, the rest is history.
Toma is known as “the Sod God” and “the Nitty Gritty Dirt Man,” and his peers — like Heather Nabozny, head groundskeeper for the Detroit Tigers, who is serving on the Super Bowl crew — refer to Toma as “the legend.”
Nabozny said Toma has been a mentor for nearly everybody in the grounds-keeping business.
“His mind is like a steel trap — he remembers everything,” Nabozny said during a break at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. “He’s more than famous — he’s a legend. He amazes me.”
Nabozny said whenever she starts to feel tired or sore, she looks at Toma.
“I look at him and suck it up,” she said. “He seeded an entire football field (Rice University Stadium) himself a couple weeks ago.”
Nabozny said everybody knows Toma — security personnel, all the workers, film crews, players, coaches, NFL executives.
“And he talks about Wyoming Valley all the time,” she said.
Ed Mangan, the NFL’s Super Bowl field director, heaps praise on Toma every year. Two years ago, when Toma was battling a health issue, Mangan said he would go to Kansas City to personally escort Toma to the Super Bowl because, Mangan said, “It wouldn’t be a Super Bowl without George Toma.”
Toma retired as a full-time groundskeeper some 18 years ago, but he now serves as a consultant for the big game, which is set for Sunday between the AFC champion New England Patriots and the NFC champion Atlanta Falcons.
“It’s just another day down here,” Toma said during a phone conversation from Houston. “We have our usual crew of 32 people. But we haven’t been getting much done on the playing field here all week because of all the preparations being done for the halftime show. Lady Gaga has been rehearsing.”
Toma and the crew are charged with taking care of the two practice fields as well — the Patriots are at the University of Houston, and the Falcons are at Rice University.
Toma said the artificial surface at NRG Stadium is one of best he’s ever worked on for a Super Bowl.
But with all of the traffic it’s seen, we will have to do a lot of grooming to bring the fibers back up,” he said.
Toma said he has enjoyed working on every Super Bowl field.
“I really enjoy what I do,” he said. “I love working.”
Toma couldn’t hang up before he reminisced about Wyoming Valley and Artillery Park. He talked about how great the field was at Artillery, which is now the home field for the Wilkes University baseball team.
“A guy named Jimmy Mazzillo operated the scoreboard,” Toma recalled. “Jimmy was quicker than the umpires with getting the balls and strikes up on the scoreboard.”
Toma said he always enjoyed walking over the coal banks from Edwardsville to Artillery Park. He remembers a Larksville High School football player named “Bull” Lipski from Railroad Street, who went on to play for Temple University and the Kansas City Bullets.
“I always had sports on my mind,” Toma said. “I was never big enough to play sports, but I sure followed them, and I enjoyed watching the games.”
Toma talked about growing up in Wyoming Valley and working at Garrahan’s Farm and later at a chicken farm in Courtdale.
“I learned so much back then,” he said. “I learned how to carry as many eggs as I could.”
Toma said he was in Orlando last Friday to make a speech at the Sports Turf Managers Association’s annual conference and to award the “George Toma Golden Rake Award.” He said the award distinguishes the great groundskeepers from the average ones.
Toma is one of the founders of STMA, one of its strongest supporters, and he has served and continues to serve as a mentor for many in the sports turf industry.
On the STMA website, it talks about how Toma continues to emphasize the importance of the entire crew in effective sports turf management. Regarding Toma, STMA says he has proven that by starting from the ground up, it’s possible to achieve your highest goals — if you love what you do and give it your all — and then some.
Here is how the STMA describes the award:
“To honor all that Toma has achieved and to keep the ‘and then some’ spirit growing and thriving within STMA, the George Toma Golden Rake Award has been established. This award is to be issued annually to someone who is on that quest to reach their goals. The George Toma Golden Rake Awards acknowledges the superior performance of a sports turf crew member in ‘on the job’ activities and in community service.”
Toma said he was proud to present the award. He said he will be on the field all day Sunday in case any issues arise. He said like every field he has ever worked on, he leaves the fingerprints of everybody back in Wyoming Valley.
As far as the game itself, Toma had one thing to say.
“May the best team win,” he said.
