<P> Albertsons Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho . It is the home field of the Boise State Broncos of the Mountain West Conference . Known as Bronco Stadium for its first 44 seasons, it was renamed in May 2014 when Albertsons, a chain of grocery stores founded by Boise area resident Joe Albertson, purchased the naming rights . </P> <P> Opened 47 years ago in 1970, it was also a track & field stadium and hosted the NCAA track & field championships twice, in 1994 and 1999 . The stadium was used extensively for local high school football for decades until August 2012, when games were transferred a few blocks northeast to the new Dona Larsen Park, which is also the new home venue of Boise State's track & field team . </P> <P> Albertsons Stadium is widely known for its unusual blue playing surface, installed in 1986, while Boise State was in the Big Sky Conference . It was the first non-green playing surface (outside of painted end zones) in football history and remained the only one among NCAA Division I FBS schools for almost 20 years . </P> <P> Since 1997, it has hosted the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (also called the Humanitarian Bowl from 1997 to January 2004 & 2007 to 2010; as well as the MPC Computers Bowl from 2004 to 2006), which is the longest - running outdoor bowl game in a cold - weather venue . </P>

When did boise state get the blue turf