For decades, there were talks about installing turf and lights at Steller Field, which has lacked both since its opening in 1964.
However, over 60 years later—and five years after the program dissolved for two weeks—the dream became a reality.
“This is one of the greatest stories that I’ve been around in college sports. It’s one of those things in my career that will always have a profound impact on how I feel about what’s possible,” Derek van der Merwe, BGSU vice president for athletics strategy and director of athletics, said.
The renovation project—the first for the stadium in over a decade—cost $3.4 million and was the result of a large-scale fundraising program led by donors, alumni and friends of the program.
Paul J. Hooker—a 1975 BGSU graduate who is a national trustee on the BGSU Board of Trustees—spearheaded the funding for the project, donating $1.5 million.
The BGSU Baseball Alumni Advisory Group, made up of Orel Hershiser, Dana Dowers, Dave Litzenberg, Roger McDowell, Andy Tracy, John Mitchell, Jon Berti, Jim Fisher and Jason Kelley, was also crucial in generating funding.
Maumee Bay Turf installed the new playing surface, Musco Lighting installing the lights.
Although there have been talks about installing an artificial playing surface since the turn of the century, serious conversations began in 2022.
“It was probably at the end of 2022 when I thought in 2023, 2024 and 2025, we might be able to be pretty good based on the shift that was happening within the program in terms of the level of buy-in that was happening from the current players, who we were going to be able to return for 2023 and who were coming in to be part of that,” head coach Kyle Hallock said. “So it was one of those conversations of just a heads-up: we do think this thing is going to turn for the better, and how can we be best positioned and prepared facility-wise to capitalize on that when one of these teams does it?”
The talks around upgrading the field started shortly after van der Merwe arrived in northwest Ohio in October 2022.
“The program was in that kind of recovery mode of being brought back, and the same group of really impactful donors—Dana Dowers, Andy Tracy, Orel Hershiser, Dave Litzenberg and John Mitchell—these individuals were still trying to build momentum around not only having the program survive but also finding ways to help it thrive, and the stadium project came into full focus within that first year,” van der Merwe said. “By probably January, February or March, I was in active conversations with that group about the future.”
The conversations between Hallock and van der Merwe went to the next level when the Falcons won two of three games against Toledo at the end of the 2023 season.
“I think we had an important conversation, I would say at the end of May of 2023, where [van der Merwe] understood where we were at. Then, obviously, his belief and support in our program with what we were doing, how we were doing it, took a step forward, I felt like, from his end,” Hallock said. “We were tasked with backing up everything we were selling, just like to the families. So that’s what this is. You speak it into existence, and then you go put in the work to back up what you’re doing. He was fully on board all the way, I’d say, at that point, and has been obviously on board ever since.”
The 2024 season changed everything.
After going a combined 58-94 overall from 2021-23, the Falcons won the MAC Regular Season Championship with a 33-20 overall and 19-11 conference record in 2024, setting a conference record with a 17-0 start to MAC play.
“I think it brought everything together. I think it makes it easy when you watch a group of guys like that go about their business like that, then produce on that level that’s never been done in conference before or after it so far,” Hallock said. “I think it all came together. I think you look at that timeline, and to do it the way they did it and in the style they did it, it’s unique, it’s special, it’s all those things, and that’s what championships are. There are certain separating factors and qualities and people and teams that allow you to do something like that. But the timing of that season, the timing of that run through the conference, with the support we were gathering and gaining and momentum—it all came together, and that’s what you hope for.”
There is a very real possibility the renovation project does not happen without success in 2024.
“I think that season was special, and the story that was written, I think that kind of catapulted all of it. I think when you do something special like that, you know, more times than not, you get rewarded, and this is our reward for what had happened,” associate head coach Matt Rembielak said. “I think if we hadn’t done what we did, I don’t think it would have happened, and I would absolutely say it’s justified that you don’t deserve it at that point.”
During the championship campaign, Rembielak started posting #TurfTheStell on X, publicly pushing for the renovations.
“I guess probably just because I probably stopped caring what anyone thought. It was more so just all the hours putting work on the field … It’s a lot of work and a lot of hours. It’s a lot of hours like not being in the office, not being able to do what really, you know, we’re supposed to be able to do,” Rembielak said. “I probably just more so just reached a point of just not caring and trying to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.”
The community started jumping on the social media trend, with Charles Bell, the father of then-BGSU pitcher Logan Bell, posting #TurfTheStell on X for 290 straight days, from Oct. 7, 2024, to July 23, 2025. His initial post has received 94,000 views.
Bell attempted to make the posts entertaining, using weekly phrases like ‘StellWantsTurf Sunday,’ ‘@maumeebayturf Monday,’ ‘#TurfTheStell Tuesday,’ ‘ne duam terren artificial Wednesday,’ ‘#TurfTheStell Thursday,’ ‘FieldTurf Friday’ and ‘StellNeedsTurf Saturday.’
“I had a lot of fun with it. I mean, I’m not an overly artistic or creative person, but from a social media standpoint, I feel I have enough experience that I can add little tweaks to it and have some fun with it,” Charles Bell said. “The parents loved it; they always were retweeting it.
Bell also created a ‘Turf the Stell’ flag, flying it at many games during the 2025 season.
“If you really look back at it, coach Rem started the ‘Turf the Stell.’ He started that, and as soon as I saw it, I was like, ‘That’s gold; I got to be part of this.’ So, we just jumped on,” Charles Bell said. “I was sitting there one day, and I’m like, ‘I need something,’ and just kind of spitballing some stuff, and I’m like, ‘I should fly a flag.’ The first time I flew it, it was a fall game, and the kids just loved it, the players loved it and the parents loved it, and I’m like, ‘Okay, this has to stick.’ At that point, I had already started tweeting every day, and it was one of those things where like, as soon as I started, I can’t stop. So, until the day that they broke ground, I kept it up.”
Hooker jumped on board with the project at the start of the 2024 season.
Before he traveled to Tennessee to watch the team play the future national champions to begin the season, Hooker was shaking hands with every player on the roster and joked to left-handed pitcher Nic Good that he would buy the team a steak dinner.
Good remembered, and reached out to Hooker two days later, calling out his bluff.
After taking the team to a Brazilian steakhouse, Hooker spent two hours a night at the hotel throughout the trip talking with Hallock about baseball.
“It was the essential start. It was the Nic Good story,” Hooker said. “I mean, if Nic Good doesn’t say that to me, doesn’t come out with what coach Hallock had ingrained in them about reaching out to alumni, and when he made that initial contact, that was it.”
However, Hooker still had hesitations about donating such a large sum of money to the program with the possibility of Hallock not being at Bowling Green long-term.
That changed when van der Merwe extended Hallock through 2029 after the 2024 season.
“I think Derek was suddenly saying to me, ‘He’s going to be here, Paul.’ It was nothing overt, nothing ever said, but when I saw that sign, that’s what triggered me to say, ‘Hey, this university is making a commitment in this coach who I really believe in.'”
Hooker’s major focus since he committed the money was making sure everything stayed on time.
“I made sure that I went to the top on all of this because, again, I just didn’t have the patience, I didn’t have the time, the bandwidth or anything to just put up with this long, drawn-out process,” Hooker said. “But those two (van der Merwe and Hallock) made sure that this whole process kept going. And with a different president and or a different athletic director, this doesn’t happen … Without those two, it’s business as usual, like any other program and any other MAC school. But we have very, very special leadership at this university, for sure.”
Throughout the fundraising process, Hallock served a behind-the-scenes role.
“I would call myself a glue guy,” Hallock said. “I’m tasked with keeping our generations engaged, all the way back from the 60s through present day, so it is my job as the head coach to just connect people, connect our current players to our former players, and create a vision and continuity.”
While Hooker donated nearly half of the funding, it took a village to get the project across the finish line.
“If you want to be successful in this era of college athletics, and you’re chasing down projects like Stellar Field and turning dreams into a reality, then you need help. You need a big team. You need a huge dugout,” Hallock said. “To accomplish this project, you need the correct president, you need the correct athletic director, you need the correct team, you need the correct alumni base, and somewhere in there, I don’t know how high in the rankings, you do need the correct coaching staff. We do feel like we’ve had the perfect storm of all those things, and this program’s proven enough over its 100-plus-year existence to have something that’s nice, and now we’ve got to go out and continue to work hard on it.”
The renovations are something that many people thought would never happen.
“I would say if there was one (challenge), I would say people outside of the support group thinking that it wouldn’t ultimately become a reality, which was my favorite part of this whole thing. It’s been talked about for a long time here, a long time, and we felt responsible to finish what those before us have started,” Hallock said. “There’s always going to be people that say, ‘Will they ever actually do it?’ Which I guess is about as negative as you can get. That’s the kind of stuff that gets me out of bed and has my feet hitting the floor every day, and I know that’s no different with our alumni and our players.”
A special part of the project is it happened at the same site Steller Field has sat at for over six decades.
“With Slater Ice Arena’s fixture in this town and what it does for the community, it’s a big deal. I also feel like it’s a baseball town, too,” Hallock said. “A lot of good players have come out of northwest Ohio. A lot of big leaguers have come out of northwest Ohio. We’ve got 15 or 16 ourselves that have played on these grounds and won the last game of the Major League Baseball season multiple times. So, in terms of tradition and all those things, I definitely feel like we’re up there with people. This project allows us to let people know that.”
When ground finally broke on the renovations in July of 2025 and the turf and lights were fully installed in the fall, there were a lot of emotions among the current players.
“I don’t even know what I can compare it to. It was joy, and it was all of the emotions. It was amazing; it was awesome. It was such a good feeling to finally step on that soft turf on that beautiful day and think that we finally made it because it’s been a long time coming. There’s been a lot of talk about it, and just trying to make it happen,” senior right-handed pitcher Jacob Turner said. “It felt like the beginning for us now of the new era of this program and a new trajectory of a bright future.”
However, the players also feel the need to deliver an increased level of success with the improved facilities.
“Absolutely something to prove. It’s motivation because alumni support and the university that made it happen for us, they came through with their promise,” Turner said. “Now, it’s time for us to come through with our promise of bringing home a trophy, hopefully even two trophies, and just having a winning season because they deserve it and we owe it to them for the support they’ve given us.”
