Another grass football field bites the dust.

With Knoch announcing its intention to soon install an artificial turf playing surface in its football stadium, Moniteau will become the lone public high school in Butler County to have a natural grass gridiron.

One can only wonder how long it will be before Moniteau goes the artificial route.

While there’s clearly a heavy expense to the initial purchase and installation of artificial turf, the long-term benefits and cost-saving cannot be denied. That’s why so many high schools have gone the turf route and will continue to do so.

In the long run, it’s a great thing for high school sports.

But for someone my age, these fields take away a fun portion of football.

Mud games.

As a fan, I loved them. Mud was the great equalizer, taking away an athletic advantage one team might have had over the other going in. As a reporter, mud games were difficult because it wouldn’t take long before you couldn’t read the numbers on the uniforms.

Summit Academy still has a grass field. I recall standing in the rain there a couple of times watching mud games there.

Knoch hosted Pine-Richland in a mud game a number of years ago. It was a challenge for the players to keep their footing.

Before Mihalik-Thompson Stadium had artificial turf, Slippery Rock University hosted a Division II playoff game with Grand Valley State (Mich.). It rained all day and the mud on the field was so deep, it would swallow your ankles as you stepped in certain places.

Grand Valley State’s coach was none other than Brian Kelly, who went on to become head coach at Cincinnati, then Notre Dame, then LSU. He voiced his displeasure over the quality of SRU’s field, saying it was a travesty and an embarrassment that a college football playoff game had to be played on a field of such poor quality.

Of course, his team got blown out that day. I doubt if he would have complained had the score been reversed.

Rick Magulick was a bruising running back on that SRU team, the type of back known in those days as a “mudder.” There’s not much need for those guys anymore.

Football games can still be played under sloppy conditions, of course. Karns City hosted Farrell in a state playoff game this past fall on a snow-covered, slippery field. Butler played McDowell for the District 10 6A title on a sleet-covered field with ice pellets falling from the sky.

Unique settings, to be sure.

But not mud.

High school sports have changed through the years. Most track teams no longer run on cinders, basketball teams are in love with the 3-point shot, football teams play on turf.

It all adds to the quality of the competition.

I guess muddy football games will have to add to my memories.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle