FanPost

Know Your Syracuse Football Foe: Maryland

Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

We take on a former "conference rival" who has defected to the Delaney Empire!

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Location

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College Park, Maryland. Originally it was called "College Station" after the train station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's main line, which runs through the city (and still serves commuters to this day via MARC's Camden Line and WMATA's Green Line), but major development began in 1898 and the city became formally incorporated in 1945 after annexing the nearby communities of Lakeland, Berwyn, Oak Spring, Branchville, Daniel's Park, and Hollywood. The original Washington Senators held their spring training here, and an annex of the National Archives is located here.

History

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Unlike most big state schools, Maryland was NOT a land grant college. In fact, it was started when slavery was still legal in Maryland (propaganda from this: Derpyderps support slavery)! The school was chartered as the Maryland Agricultural School in 1856 and land was purchased by Charles Benedict Calvert, a fervent supporter of agricultural education and a descendant from the founders of the colony of Maryland: the Baltimores, in 1858 in what was to become College Park. It eventually became a land grant college in 1864, although, again, it was not founded as such. The school allowed both Union and Confederate troops to cam there during the Civil War (the Union troops because it was their duty and the Confederate troops because supposedly the school's presedent was pro Confederacy). The school went through bankruptcy during the Civil War but was pulled out after. George Washington Custis Lee, the son of Robert E. Lee, was made commissioner, and its oldest still-standing building, Morrill Hall (after the land grant guy), was built in 1898. There are a lot of urban legends about this building.

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Of course, every longstanding college has to be burned down at least once, and Maryland was no exception: every building except Morrill Hall burned in 1912 and the school threatened to close, but the students would not let it. The center of campus before the fire is marked by the "Point of Failure" a compass. It is said that any student that walks here will not graduate. Of course, we all know the sports teams walk here before every game, with the possible exception of the lacrosse team.

In 1916, the school was renamed Maryland State College after it was fully taken over by the state, and the school became coed, and then merged with other established schools from Baltimore in 1920 and changed its name to the University of Maryland. At this time, enrollment was around 500 students, and the school began offering doctoral degrees. In 1925 the school was accredited by the AAU.

The school integrated in 1951 when black students began enrolling (previously they were cast into a satellite campus at UMD-Eastern Shore) and enrollment reached 10,000. In 1957, a plan was put in place to increase academic standards, which resulted in the near expulsion of almost 20% of its student body. In 1970 the University had four satellite campuses in Catonsville (UMBC), Princess Anne (Eastern Shore), Baltimore, and Adelphi (University College) and in 1988 the College Park campus was made the flagship campus of the University System of Maryland. The satellite campuses eventually became schools in their own right.

Academics

The school has an enrollment of over 37,500 students, with over 26,000 undergrads and over 11,000 grads. The school has 13 colleges: the A. James Clark School of Engineering, the College of Agricultural and Natural Resaurces, the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Information Studies, the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, the Robert H. Smith School of Business, the School of Agriculture, Planning, and Preservation, the School of Public Health, the Office of Undergraduate Studies, and the "Graduate School." Students are given the opportunity to live with people they will be studying with and UMD has seven renowned honors programs, including Digital Cultures and Creativity, Entrepeneurship and Innovation, Humanities, the Gemstone Program, Advanced Cyber Security, Integrated Life Sciences, and University Honors.

In 2004, Maryland built "M Square," which is supposed to be the largest research park inside the beltway. Owing to its close proximity to Washington, Maryland gets a lot of federal funding and works with federal agencies. The school is also focusing on research into climate science.

Maryland is ranked 62nd nationally by US News, tied with us, and is ranked 7th of the 14 B1G schools. It is an AAU member.

Notable Alumni

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You can't be a big state school without having a lot of big names in just about every field. Numerous professors and presidents of schools far and wide went to UMD. One of the most notable is Dagmar R. Henney, who was one of the first female professors of calculus, finite mathematics, and integration (don't ask me what finite mathematics is, I know what the other two are though). Raymond Davis Junior was a physicist who lead the Homestake Experiment to capture neutrinos emitted from the sun by nuclear fusion in the 1960s and who later won the Nobel Physics Prize in 2002 for his work. Also was Herbert Hauptman, who won the Nobel Chemistry Prize as a mathemetician, the only non-chemist to do so.

There weren't that many notable politicians who went to UMD, but the designer of the US Capitol, Stephen T. Ayers, went there.

In literature, Jeff Kinney, who wrote the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and Jeff Kluger, who wrote the book behind the Apollo 13, went there.

In journalism, Carl Berinstein, who famously broke the Watergate scandal, is an alum, as is Haynes Johnson, who did a lot of work on the civil rights movement.

A lot of Silicon Valley bigs are alums of Maryland, including "Google Guy" Sergey Brin, and Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. The founders of IHOP, Sirius Satellite Radio, Outback Steakhouse, and others are alums. And, of course, Under Armour founder Kevin Plank is an alum.

A lot of astronauts went to Maryland, as did Alex Severinsky, the designer of the hybrid engine used in the Prius.

Two very big Hollywood names attended Maryland: Larry David, who created Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Jim Henson, who created the Muppets. There is a Disney-Mickey style statue of Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog on a campus bench, and a design-your-own-Testudo contest featured a Kermit themed Testudo. David Simon went to Maryland, and he spent his creative career at home, creating legendary Baltimore-based crime dramas Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire. Oscar-winner and Law & Order alum Dianne West is an alum as well. Karen Allen, who was in Animal House and the Indiana Jones saga, went there as well. Beth MacCarthy Miller, who was a director on Saturday Night Live and went over to 30 Rock, is an alum. Speaking of 30 Rock, our babealicious babe this week is Tina Fey. But not just any ordinary Tina Fey. No, I'm talking about FICTIONAL! Tina Fey.

Pageantry

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Maryland's nickname is the Terrapins, and they are the only school with this name. Until 1932, Maryland was known as the Old Liners, a homage to Maryland's state nickname. But there was a push in 1932 for a better name. Legendary football coach Harry "Curley" Byrd suggested the Terrapins after the diamondback terrapins found in the Chesapeake Bay, which also made sense because the school's newspaper was already known as the Diamondback. The school has a costumed mascot named Testudo which was named after a genus of tortoises that are actually unrelated to the diamondback terrapin. Testudo itself is a 300 pound bronze statue on a windowsill at McKeldin library. Originally it was in front of the Ritchie Coliseum, but it was kidnapped and defaced several times by Virginia and Hopkins students and placed out of reach when it was given back. No live mascot is used, but in the 1970s a costumed mascot began to be seen around games.

Maryland's official colors are red, black, gold, and yellow. I don't think anyone needs to do their research to know that these colors are the ones on the Maryland state flag (and those horrible unis based on them. EXCELSIOR!). Obviously no other school has this combination.

Maryland's logo starting in the 1970s was a red and black Testudo with a white underbelly pounding on a Minnesota-style block M. I still think this is my favorite. In 1997 it was changed to Testudo holding his hands on his hips, a block M on his chest, and the words "Univeristy of Maryland" above it; sometimes the logo is shown without these words. Around the same time, a block M logo was unveiled with a Maryland state flag flying above it; this logo is still in use today. In 2012 the Testudo logo was retired and the current M logo with the state flag underneath it began use, I'm guessing because of the move to the B1G.

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Because of Maryland's four colors, they have had many alternate helmets over the years featuring backgrounds in all of them but gold. Until 1972, either Testudo, a lowercase "um" or nothing appeared on these helmets in the foreground. In the '70s, a gold block M on a white background was used, and the primary helmet in the 1980s and the 2000s featured a red or white script "terps" on a red, black, or white background ('80s usually white on red and '00s usually red on white). In the 90s, various red block Ms on black were used, including Maryland's alternate logo. Since 2010, the helmets have featured the state flag on a black or white background. For one game a year they wear those ridiculous state flag uniforms, and the helmet features the red-and-white cross pattern.

Maryland's fight song is called "The Maryland Victory Song," writtein in 1928 by Thorton W. Allen:

Maryland we're all behind you,
Raise high the black and gold.
For there is nothing half so glorious,
As to see our team victorious.
We've got the team boys,
We've got the steam boys,
So keep on fighting, don't give in!
M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D (yell)
Maryland will win!

Maryland has also in recent years, particularly during their basketball zenith, become infamous for jeering "Hey, you suck!" at opposing teams. It became controversial to the point where the band would stop playing the associated song after requests from coaches (particularly that it hurt recruiting), but it is still done a capella.

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Maryland is also best known as the birthplace of Midnight Madness in 1971 by coach Lefty Driesell with a 1.5 mile run around the track at Byrd Stadium and invited fans to watch at 12:03 on the Friday closest to October 15th as per then NCAA rules that this was the earliest date to start practice.

Athletics

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Maryland was a charter member of the Southern Conference in 1921, which is the third oldest collegiate conference after the B1G and the Missouri Valley, which included many future ACC and SEC schools. However, in 1951, the SoCon banned members from participating in bowls. Maryland was invited to a bowl that year, along with Clemson, which cause the conference to sanction both schools. In 1953, Maryland joined six other schools from the SoCon in leaving to form a new conference: the Atlantic Coast Conference. They remained there until just last month when they joined the Big Ten at the invitation of Jim Delaney. Maryland also has the unique distinction of being the only school with national championships in all three big sports: football, basketball, and lacrosse. Well, the only school besides Syracuse, of course.

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Maryland has been playing football since 1892, and it's first big name coach was later university president Curley Byrd (he also coached the basketball team). After he left in the 1930s, they had some future big names at the head coaching position, including Bear Bryant. The Bear resigned after Byrd reinstated a suspended player......which makes me wonder if college football would have been big in the South had this not happened....

But Maryland was in fine shape for the short term. In the 1950s they had Jim Tatum as their head coach. In his tenure they went 73-15-4, including two undefeated regular seasons. They won the national championship in 1953.....but the final polls were released before the bowl season back then. They promptly lost to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. But they did have a Sugar Bowl win two years later to cap a truly undefeated season in 1951, where they DID beat the national champion that year (Tennessee). But in 1956 he left to go coach at Carolina. When he returned to face his old school, Queen Elizabeth II was in attendance because she was apparently interested in what we call "football" here. In the late 50s they were coached by Tom Nugent who coached the Terps in their only win against Penn State, and helped integrate the team.

Since then Maryland has been in a lull, going through various coaches that didn't stay on that long. Although they hit a high point in 1984, when they stormed back to upset Miami 42-40 after being down 31-0 at halftime in a regular season game at the Orange Bowl (remember this was actually a place back then). Their longest tenured head coach since then was Ralph Fridgen, who was in charge for most of the aughts. He was replaced by current coach, UConn hack Randy Edsall.

Probably their most notable alum in football is Boomer Esiason, who set 17 school records during his tenure in the 80s. More recent notables includes Kris Jenkins (a favorite of mine when he was on the Jets), Shawne Merriman, Vernon Davis, Frank Wycheck, Jermaine Lewis (who won the Super Bowl locally with the Ravens), and others. I could list more (and will probably be hounded by Terp fans who come to read this) but there's just too many and this post is getting quite long.....and I haven't even gotten to basketball or lacrosse yet!

Maryland's stadium is Byrd Stadium which opened in 1950 and currently seats just under 52K.

The Terps have been in 25 bowl games. Four of them were Gator Bowls, with Maryland going 3-0-1 in them, tying Georgia and beating Missouri, Florida, and West Virginia. They've been to three Orange Bowls, losing all of them; their most recent appearance there was a 2002 loss to Florida. They also lost to Oklahoma twice there. They won their aforementioned Sugar Bowl against Tennessee. They lost to Houston in their only Cotton Bowl appearance. Sadly, they beat us in the Cherry Bowl. WE WILL HAVE OUR REVENGE. They played in a pair of Citrus Bowls, losing them to Tennesee and Florida. They've been to three Peach Bowls, losing to Georgia and beating Tennessee. They have never been to a Rose or Fiesta Bowl. Overall, they're 11-12-2 in bowls.

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Maryland has been playing basketball since 1904 but games had been played sporadically in the early years; it became permanent in 1924. The basketball Terps had former football quarterback Burton Shipley as their first coach, who had a mixed record. Their first period of success began in the 1930s when Maryland won its first SoCon tournament in 1931. They had success in the 1950s as well under Bud Milikan, a former disciple of Okie State legend Henry Iba. When the ACC was formed, Maryland was the only competitive team in basketball outside Tobacco Road. They got a top 10 ranking in only the second year of the ACC.

The first of Maryland's legendary coaches was Lefty Driesell, who was hired in 1969. He invented Midnight Madness in 1970 as mentioned above. In his early tenure he presided over four consecutive seasons with a #2 ranking. He almost signed Moses Malone, but Malone backed out at the last minute to go to the ABA. In 1974, Maryland played in the game that convinced the NCAA to allow at-large bids by in overtime 100-103 to NC State. Their biggest win was also in the ACC tournament against NC State when they rallied back to beat them. His success continued into the 1980s, until Len Bias died of cocaine just after he was drafted by the Celtics. This caused a scandal which forced him to resign. He was 348-159 at Maryland and led the Terps to the NCAA tournament 9 times.

Driesell was replaced with Gary Williams, who returned to his alma mater in 1989. He had some cleanup to do from various scandals in his early years but in the 1990s made 11 consecutive NCAA tournaments, including back to back Final Fours in 2001 and 2002, the latter of which resulted in their only national championship. Gary Williams resigned in 2011 and was replaced with current head coach Mark Turgeon.

Overal, Maryland has made 24 NCAA tournaments (1958, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1981, 1983-1986, 1988, 1994-2004, 2007, 2009, and 2010), 13 Sweet Sixteens (1958, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1984-1986, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001-2003), five Elite Eights (1958, 1973, 1975, 2001, and 2002) and the aforementioned Final Fours and national title game.

Maryland currently plays in the XFINITY Center (formerly the Comcast Center) but their longest tenured arena was Cole Field House. Their current arena has a capacity of just about 17.5k.

Notable players include Juan Dixon (MVP of the title year), Len Bias, disloyal idiot and Syracuse curse Len Elmore (here's resason #1 to hate them), Joe Smith, Lonny Baxter, John Lucas, Walt Williams, Buck Williams, and more recently Greveis Vazquez.

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The lacrosse team is probably the school's most underacheiving program, having begun in 1924. They've made 10 NCAA title games but only won two actual titles (1973 and 1975) led by middie Frank Urso. The last time they missed a tournament was way back in 1999, and they've only missed five tournaments overall. They made 22 Final Fours. Their most successful coaches have been Bud Bearmore (who guided the Terps to their two titles) and Dick Edell. The current coach is John Tillman and they play their games in Byrd Stadium. Maryland has never had a losing season.

Rival

Maryland is like us in the respect that the rival depends on the sport. Unlike us, they don't have a mutual Their traditional rival in football has always been Penn State, but you could hardly call that a rival as Penn State won all but two of the meetings and Penn State doesn't consider the feeling mutual in their 37 year series which was ended in 1993, although now that they share a conference it should start up again. Also, Penn State has considered Pitt its biggest rival traditionally.

Maryland had an intense rivalry with Virginia, which was somewhat traditional since the two schools competed for recruits. The feeling is semi-mutual, but UVA considers VPI their biggest rival. This is the first year they will not play since 1957. Maryland currently leads the series 44-32-2.

Maryland's basketball rivalry with Duke came to be in a similar way our rivalry with Louisville did. In 2001, the two schools played four games (a feat WE should have done in 2013 against Lousiville if it wasn't for those meddling refs), including in the Final Four that year, when Duke rallied to beat Maryland and then go on to beat Arizona for the title the year before Maryland won a title of its own. The Terps have historically been the most successful team in Cameron Indoor. The rivalry is, of course, not mutual for obvious reasons. Duke leads the series 110-63.

In lacrosse, they consider their biggest rival to be Hopkins. Unlike the other rivalries, this one IS mutual. The schools have met since 1895. When lacrosse was an Olympic sport, one of the two teams would participate. Hopkins leads the series 61-38-2, but Hopkins counts additional meetings when Maryland only fielded a club team. Maryland dominated in the pre-tournament era, but in the 1980s Hopkins has had the edge. The two schools met in recent years in some tournament games as well.

Outlook

Maryland has a high powered offense but no defense. And I doubt West Virginia had much of a defense either. But WE have a defense that finally managed to show up. I'm going to ride the tide and since this is not Florida State declare that we will win the game 24-14. GO ORANGE!