So when the former luggage salesman and CFL quarterback was able to persuade Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne to come inspect his new product, Gilman, the CEO of FieldTurf, scraped together what he could to pay for a private airplane to fly the potential customer to see a high school field in the middle of Pennsylvania.

Dropped off at Ringgold High in Monongahela, the legendary Cornhuskers football coach strolled to midfield, exchanged pleasantries and asked where the field was.

"You just walked across it," Gilman said.

That path led the late Gilman and FieldTurf on a wildly successful journey that has taken the Montreal-based company to the forefront of the business of artificial playing surfaces. Today, its rubber- and sand-based surfaces can be found in 3,000 different locations.