An MSU turf team is literally laying the groundwork for next year's summer Olympic Games.

Crops and soil sciences professors Trey Rogers and Jim Crum will design, construct and set up a transportable athletic field for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

"It's flattering, but we don't get a title of 'Rocket Scientists,'" Rogers said. "I'm a believer that there's a lot of people out there that can do what we do. It's more a testament to the turf program and the university as a whole."

At an off-site location, Rogers and Crum will mow and monitor a field for irrigation, fertilization and weed control.

Opening ceremonies for the Games will be conducted on asphalt rather than on the field Rogers and Crum design, which will be needed later in the games for soccer, and track and field events.

After the opening ceremonies, Rogers and Crum will oversee the two- to three-day process of disassembling the turf and bringing it into Beijing National Stadium in the form of interlinking 46-inch square modules - identical to what is used for the field in Spartan Stadium.

Rogers and Crum met with Olympic officials in December in Beijing at the 91,000-capacity stadium scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. It took little convincing for the two to get involved in the second straight Olympic Games, after overseeing the field for the 2004 Games in Athens.

Working for the Olympic Games is always an honor, Crum said, adding that MSU has a "long history" of being involved in international events.

The two first teamed together to create a transportable field when the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994.

Their role in the upcoming Olympic Games will largely be as consultants, Rogers said, which will be much different from the international soccer tournament held in Detroit more than a dozen years ago.

"In 1994, we did everything from A to Z," he said. "We shined the shoes, mowed the grass - everything was done by MSU."

The challenge with the World Cup was the indoor Pontiac Silverdome, which doesn't allow for adequate sunlight to aid the growth of grass, Crum said.

He and Rogers completed research and development for the field two years before the Cup and finished building it the summer before.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, then the MSU provost, was one of the first to congratulate Rogers and Crum for their work, Rogers said. Simon will join the two in their trip to the Beijing Olympic Games.

Crum said the World Cup field initiated work with transportable turf systems. While they are relatively expensive, Crum said the flexibility gained by having a timely, moveable field overshadows the cost.

MSU opted to switch from artificial turf in Spartan Stadium to 1,100-pound removable, natural grass modules in 2002.

"Stadiums are now moving more toward (becoming facilities that are) multi-purpose and multi-function," Crum said, mentioning the new home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals as an example.

The University of Phoenix Stadium boasts a completely retractable, natural-grass playing field. The field rolls outside the stadium to receive sunlight and watering on nongame days, and back inside on a 17-million pound field tray.

The stadium design allows for more flexibility in hosting events like concerts or rodeos that could potentially damage natural grass fields.

Eunice Foster, associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said Rogers and Crum demonstrate how MSU has become a global university.

"The Olympics gives Michigan State University name recognition," Rogers said. "People are able to see that Michigan State is working with a Chinese company."

Craig Trudell can be reached at trudell6@msu.edu.