Get FinancingKeeping It Green: Toro’s Early Years
Many people think of Toro as the company that made their riding lawn mower or snow blower, but turf care pros know that Toro is primarily a turf equipment company, and has been since the 1920s. In fact, groundskeepers put Toro products to work on some of the most prestigious athletic fields and golf courses around the world. Just a few of these iconic sites include the Rose Bowl, Torrey Pines Golf Course, Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, St Andrews Links in Scotland, and the All England Club in Wimbledon, London. A grounds crew used Toro equipment to prepare the field at the first Super Bowl, and the National Football League continues to depend on Toro for the biggest game of the year. But as with many equipment company success stories, Toro didn’t start out making turf equipment.
Farm Power
The Toro Motor Company was created in 1914 to build tractor engines and other parts for the The Bull Tractor Company. At the time, Bull Tractor developed a promising small tractor for farm use, called the “Little Bull,” but was unable to find a reliable source for the engines. Although Toro Motor Company was independent of Bull Tractor, the name “Toro” reflected the close working relationship between two companies. Being an independent brand was a good thing for Toro, as Bull Tractor would soon close up shop. Toro Motor Company, meanwhile, began producing steam steering winches for merchant marine ships during World War I, as well as heavy-duty engines and parts for trucks and tractors.
From Tractors To Turf
Toro introduced its first golf course product, a power fairway roller, in 1918, four years after its founding. The next year, the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota, asked Toro to create a motorized fairway mower, and the resulting machine consisted of five lawn mowers mounted to the front of a Toro tractor. This motorized fairway mower would replace the club’s horse-drawn equipment and was a forerunner to modern gang-reel mowers.
Toro picked a good time to develop turf equipment. The early 1920s marked the beginning of an agricultural depression, severally curtailing the sales of Toro tractors and equipment. In 1920, Toro changed its name to The Toro Manufacturing Company and decided to leave the agriculture equipment business in favor of turf management machines. Toro’s original golf lineup included a specialty tractor, a steel wagon, a flexible roller, a side-cutting bar for maintaining the rough, and a compost machine.
Roaring Twenties
Once Toro began to focus solely on turf management, innovations came along quickly. In 1923, Toro introduced the Sea Serpent fairway sprinkler system, and 1924 marked the advent of Toro’s first greens mower and the company’s first power mower. Toro’s Junior Series golf tractors came along in 1927 to meet superintendents’ demands for lighter, faster tractors. Toro also had a big hit in 1928 with its Silver Flash push reel mower, as it became a staple on golf courses as well as in city parks and other public spaces.
Toro co-founder John Samuel Clapper became president of the company shortly after its founding and guided it through its successful transition from manufacturing farm equipment to building turf equipment. Clapper took an active hand in the company’s product design, and earned 16 patents in all. The Sea Serpent sprinkler system, for example, was one of Clapper’s patented designs, and is considered by many to be the first sports field irrigation system. That spirit of innovation served the company well through its first decade and beyond, and is still a driving force in the company today.
Find Toro Equipment
If you’re looking for used Toro farm equipment, you’ll find hundreds of options on TractorHouse.com. And look to NeedTurfEquipment.com for all of your used Toro turf equipment needs.