March 1, 2002

By John Giese
Athletic Media Relations

In 1955, Lawrence E. Weyer, Sr. was in the midst of turning his athletic surfacing trade from niche work into the premier such business in the Washington, D.C. area when he began construction on perhaps his most famous job - installing the flooring at Cole Field House.

Now, 47 years and countless Terrapin memories later, the University of Maryland has once again called upon Weyer's Floor Service to create a state-of-the-art basketball surface worthy of its men's and women's basketball programs. When fans and the campus "honor our past and celebrate our future" at Sunday's final game at Cole Field House against Virginia, that transitional theme is embodied by Weyer's son, Lawrence "Larry" E. Weyer, Jr., who will help to install a NBA-quality surface at the new Comcast Center.

"I'm very proud of the fact that we're doing it," Weyer said. "We wanted to make sure Maryland got the quality floor they wanted."

Weyer, who took over the family business upon his father's retirement after 54 years of work, counts local universities like George Mason and George Washington among his customers. But the Comcast Center floor will be very similar to that of professional arenas across the country, as technology has made huge strides since his father put in Cole's floor.

According to Weyer, the Comcast Center's maple-wood flooring and the support from its metal-encased rubber pad can absorb 65 percent of the "shock" from athletes' running and jumping. By contrast, the Cole Field House flooring, supported by a concrete sub-floor, absorbed only 35 percent of the shock to the athletes playing on it.

"You're not just buying the maple floor anymore," said Weyer, who has more than 40 years' experience installing athletic surfaces in the Washington area. "You have to consider the athletes."

Even though Weyer, like his father who passed away 10 years ago, does not count himself a basketball fan - "If there was a football game and a basketball game on at the same time, we'd probably have watched the football game" - he recognizes what the new Comcast Center will mean to Terrapin fans. But after his Odenton, Md.-based business won the bid to install the new floor, Weyer was not only struck that he would be helping to replace something his father created, he was also thinking about the family's legacy at the University of Maryland.

"Hopefully my son will take over the business, and if Maryland ever needs a third field house built, he can do it."