Equipment staff preparations for MU’s first game takes several weeks

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Many hours of preparation, organization and laundry have to happen before the Missouri Tigers can take the field in their all-black uniforms on Thursday.

MU's Director of Equipment Operations Mike Kurowski said preparation for football's first game starts during summer training camp.

"The only time people know what we do is if a decal's wrong on a helmet, misspelled name on a jersey or something like that, but as long as we can control what we can control, no one knows what we do and everybody just thinks we wash laundry for a living," Kurowski said.

This is Kurowski's eighth season as the equipment director at MU. His football staff is made up of three full-time employees and 18 student workers.

That 21-person crew is responsible for the equipment of around 120 players and 70 football staff members including everything from the gear, pads, shoes, helmets and even head coach Eli Drinkwitz's visors.

"I would say we are looking at close to $10 million worth of stuff in here between everything, just for football," Kurowski said.

During the summer, Kurowski's staff starts labeling the players' and coaches' gear, spellchecking jerseys and pulling out uniform pants.

This week, they've been adding stripes and oval Tiger decals to more than 100 black helmets.

Full-time staff member and Director of Football Equipment Reuben Victoria said it's a fast-paced environment but the staff is great.

"We've been getting everything prepped for the game, whether it's decal-ing helmets, making sure jerseys and pants are ready to go, the uniform combination," Victoria said.

When the coaches decide on the uniform combination, Kurowski said the equipment staff puts the combinations on mannequins and sends the looks to the coaches. Then, the coaches, captains and seniors decide what to wear each game, even down to the decals on the helmets.

Each player has a space in the room where the equipment staff stores their helmets, game pants and travel bags. Equipment staff then sets up their lockers ahead of the game.

"It's a very thankless job, but we love what we do," Victoria said. "Everybody always talks about the uniforms and the different combinations, so it's good that people realize we're the people behind the scenes that make all this stuff happen. We work really hard."

Aside from uniforms, the staff is responsible for all travel, practice and weight room gear, too. Kurowski said in-season, the staff probably does an average of 6-8 hours of laundry per day.

"The (laundry) room's always going," Kurowski said.

Also in the equipment room is what Kurowski calls "The Shoe Room," which holds around 600 pairs of shoes just for football.

Kurowski said most weeks, the job is seven days a week. He travels with the team and is on the sidelines on gameday, but doesn't get to see kickoff most days due to his work getting ready for halftime.

Kurowski has spent 27 years in equipment and said one thing he has learned is that no job is too big or too small for him to do.

"It's not so much of a fear of messing up, I just don't want our department to be viewed as it isn't prepared," Kurowski said. "And I think that's where I take the most pride in, is to make sure that we are prepared in every situation."

Before coming to MU in 2017, Kurowski worked full time for Louisville, the Dallas Cowboys and the Las Vegas Outlaws of the XFL.

He said what drives him is playing a small part in the team's success and being able to teach and encourage others about the behind-the-scenes work, including his student workers and now his teenage sons.

"Some of my students come in and just use it as a job and I'm fine with it. Some of them come in and not have an idea of what they want to do going into college and then fall in love with this," Kurowski said. "So, I think that's my drive is to keep the profession going."

The Tigers kick off their season at 7 p.m. Thursday against Murray State.