Former Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck once said, “A good groundskeeper was the 10th man on the field and was worth five to seven victories a season.” George Toma is often ranked among the greatest groundskeepers of all time, creating and maintaining professional baseball, football, soccer, and Olympic playing fields all over the world.

His work philosophy was simple: Work as hard as you can, and then try to do a little more. He once noted that “the cheapest insurance for an athlete is a good, safe playing field.” Toma believed sports fields could be maintained inexpensively in a way that could be beneficial for both the players and the team owners.