Campbell, the former Otago cricketer, was Carisbrook groundsman from 1984 to the end of 1988.
His most vivid memory is an incident that was "kept pretty quiet at the time". The old rugby posts were so heavy they had to be dragged out of the ground by a helicopter, and this day, in heavy rain, a chopper nearly came to grief.
"I was in the house and heard the helicopter. It was hovering above the posts, and had pulled one out," Campbell recalled.
"It was just pulling the second one out and a shackle or whatever they call it broke. The rope catapulted into the rotors.
"There was massive drama. The pitch of the helicopter changed drastically, and I'm thinking, 'This guy's heading into the Rose Stand'.
"He managed to control it and land in the middle of the field. The helicopter stayed there for a couple of days while they found a replacement part."
Campbell was sole charge most of the time but would often be joined by a rather unusual band of volunteers on Monday mornings: prisoners on work release.
"I think they had a vegetable-growing place and gardens nearby. They used to call in to give me a hand cleaning up the rubbish around the stands.
"They were very helpful. But you had to keep a bit of an eye on them."
Campbell started just after the group of volunteers known as Dad's Army had completed significant work on upgrading the surface of Carisbrook.
He tried to keep the ground in immaculate condition, but weather often made that difficult, as did coaches and players who didn't like it when the groundsman put out the "Keep Off" signs.
There were defined rugby and cricket seasons, when rugby was a vastly different beast to today's year-round sport.
Campbell's first tractor at Carisbrook was an ageing Massey Ferguson. Then he was upgraded, to a smaller but more powerful Kubota, "which could get into a lot of places".
Ground administrator Bill Townsend had a farming friend who put together various implements to help keep the ground in shape.
Campbell, wife Dianne and children lived on site, in the little groundsman's cottage.
"I'm not too sure if that was a good thing or not. It was rent-free but you couldn't get away from your job.
"The phone would go all the time, and people would come to the door for all sorts of things. We had a problem for a while with a burglar alarm going off in the referees' room at all hours."
Name: Keith Campbell.
Role: Groundsman.
Favourite Carisbrook memory: Seeing a helicopter nearly crash into the Rose Stand.
