When Kehoe Field was first constructed, it was home to a football team that regularly produced winning records and earned trips to the Orange and Sun Bowls. But that was 1942.

When it was reconstructed on top of the newly-built Yates Field House, its cutting edge Astroturf was the new trend in professional baseball and football fields. But that was 1979.

Today, Kehoe Field, used primarily for intramural and club sports and general recreation, is dotted with patches of discolored turf, cuts, bumps and potholes beneath the carpet-like surface. An accumulation of goals, including those for soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse, are scattered across the edges of the field. Some were left in place after the last pickup soccer game, while others are bunched along the fence, waiting for the next lacrosse player to practice his shot.

This season, after residing on Kehoe Field for 27 years, the varsity field hockey team has moved to Maryland’s Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex. The squad occasionally works out on Kehoe, but the university decided that the uneven surface was unsuitable for game play; instead, the Hoyas are practicing and hosting their five home contests in College Park this season.

Georgetown Athletic Director Bernard Muir said that the university came to a decision before the season that Kehoe Field was not an appropriate surface for Division I field hockey.

“As you look, you’d see different spots that were cause for concern, and we didn’t want to take any chances,” he said. “We reached a point where we just thought that we were better off seeking another location to play our games.”

Kehoe’s surface was not always this way. In the first few years after the 1979 reconstruction and switch to Astroturf, Kehoe was home to Georgetown football, lacrosse and field hockey. In the first season of use, the field hockey team compiled a record of 6-3-4 by using a new 4-3-2-1 formation predicated upon taking advantage of passes that were made easier by the smooth field conditions.

The Hoyas’ head coach at the time, Sandy Sprinkle, raved about the new turf. “It gives us a chance to really key on the fine points of the game, and it’s a better game,” she said in the Nov. 2, 1979 issue of THE HOYA.

Since, the field has gradually become less even. The football and lacrosse teams have played on the Multi-Sport Facility since it was constructed in 2005 and no longer need the everyday practice space that Kehoe once offered. Because it is the only of the three campus fields with permanent lights, Kehoe is a hotspot for night-time athletics. On an average night in mid-October, two intramural flag football games, a pickup soccer match, and women’s rugby practice can all be seen sharing the turf and precious light at the same time.

“It’s not ideal for rugby because we can only practice half the game. We can work on our passing but we can’t have any contact because of the ground,” said Jane Dewire (COL ’10), a member of the Georgetown women’s rugby team, which practices on the field two nights each week. When there is incidental contact and someone hits the turf, players can expect rug burn and a bruise.

With the field unfit for Division I field hockey and more potholes and bumps popping every year, Kehoe needs a facelift if it is to once again play host to NCAA events. But, according to several university officials, talks of renovation are still in their infancy.

“As of right now there are no plans, no decision, no nothing for the renovation of Kehoe Field,” said Karen Frank, vice president for facilities and student housing. “We have hired consultants who are looking into our options and determining how much weight the roof [of Yates Field House] can hold. At this point, no decisions have been made.”

Jim Gilroy, director of Yates, which sits underneath Kehoe, tabbed funding and structural problems as obstacles. Although he has not been involved in renovation talks, he estimated that a new field may cost anywhere from $10-15 million. Gilroy added that water from Kehoe currently leaks in Yates Field House, and that the field may ultimately have to be removed if it is not fixed.

For now, it is unclear where the field hockey team’s home will be in the future, but Muir said that he hopes to find a permanent home for the squad within the next five years.

“It’s really premature for me to say what we are going to do, but obviously in the long term, at least for field hockey’s sake, we want to have a place for them to play permanently,” Muir said. “That’s really important, especially in recruiting quality kids to come to Georgetown – having a home is part of Division I athletics.”

For now, the Hoyas continue to play at Maryland. College Park’s Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex is a state-of-the art facility equipped with locker rooms, a concession area, restrooms and stands for 1,400 spectators. The facility, completed in November 2005, has a full-length field hockey surface and 10 feet of run-off on all sides, according to Maryland’s Director of Operations and Facilities Josh Kaplan.

The turf, an Astroturf 12 playing surface, is a water-based surface, which is different from Kehoe’s dry, sand-based turf. Water-based turfs, which are knitted nylon surfaces meant to provide uniform traction and consistent footing when wet, are the new field of choice for high-level field hockey, as they allow for quicker passing and cause fewer injuries than the more abrasive sand-based turf. According to Gilroy, the type of turf on Kehoe Field is, “the hardest of the synthetic turfs and the least forgiving in terms of injuries.”

Maryland’s Astroturf 12 surface has six water cannons located around the perimeter that spray between 180-360 gallons per minute to keep the field in top playing condition, Kaplan said.

With the Multi-Sport Facility and business school building still unfinished, and plans for a science building and an athletic practice facility, it is too early to say where Kehoe’s renovation will fit into the university’s construction plans.

For now, club sports participants can take solace in knowing that their skinned knee may lead to a new field for the field hockey team – or in the absence of renovations, a nice terrain for the new varsity ATV team.

– Lauren Zelt contributed to this report.