The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 20 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. Maryland was a founding member of the Southern Conference in 1921, a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1952, and a member of the Big Ten Conference since 2014.
The nickname was coined in 1932 by Harry C. "Curley" Byrd, then the school's football coach and later the school's president. Previously, Maryland teams were known as the "Old Liners"—a reference to the state's nickname, "The Old Line State". However, the school newspaper, The Diamondback, wanted a better nickname. Byrd thought "Terrapins" was a good choice because of the diamondback terrapins native to the Chesapeake Bay region. Byrd's hometown of Crisfield was famous for the number of terrapins along its shores. The school mascot is an anthropomorphic turtle named "Testudo". The official team colors are red, white, black, and gold, derived from the Maryland state flag. It is the only NCAA school to have four official school colors. On July 1, 2014, the Terrapins became members of the Big Ten Conference following 62 years of membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The university currently sponsors varsity athletic teams in 20 men's and women's sports, which compete at the NCAA Division I level.
History The University of Maryland, College Park was established in 1856 as Maryland Agricultural College. Baseball and football were played on the campus as early as the Civil War era.David Ungrady, Tales from the Maryland Terrapins, 2003, pp. 3–4, Sports Publishing LLC. It was renamed Maryland State College in 1916, and in 1920, merged with the state's professional schools in Baltimore to become the University of Maryland. Between 1921 and 1953, the university was a member of the Southern Conference.
Longstanding tensions within the Southern Conference culminated in 1951, when it passed a ban on participation in bowl games midway through the football season. At the end of the regular season, both Maryland and Clemson were invited and accepted invitations to postseason bowl games. The Southern Conference sanctioned the two schools with a one-year probation in which they could not schedule any football games against conference opponents.K. Adam Powell, Border Wars: The First Fifty Years of Atlantic Coast Conference Football, p. xvi, Scarecrow Press, 2004, . On May 8, 1953, Maryland became a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) when it and six other schools voted to split from the Southern Conference.Seven Major Dixie Colleges Break Away From Bulky Southern Conference, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, May 9, 1953.Seven Southern Colleges Join New Athletic League, The Hartford Courant, June 15, 1953.
As a result of a committee's recommendation to cut athletics costs, funding for eight teams was eliminated on November 21, 2011, a move supported by University President Wallace Loh. However, the president also showed support for a "Save the Programs Campaign", which gave the teams a chance to raise eight years of total program costs by June 30, 2012. The affected teams were men's cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track, men's swimming and diving, men's tennis, women's acrobatics and tumbling, women's swimming and diving, and women's water polo. On July 1, 2012, the university officially cut seven of those teams. The men's outdoor track team raised $888,000 of a target amount of $940,000, which was deemed sufficient to avoid elimination.
On November 19, 2012, the University of Maryland's Board of Regents voted to withdraw from the ACC to join the Big Ten Conference effective July 1, 2014.
Sports sponsored Baseball Basketball Basketball Cross country Football Field hockey Golf Golf Lacrosse Gymnastics Soccer Lacrosse Track and field Soccer Wrestling Softball Tennis Track and field† Volleyball The University of Maryland currently offers 20 varsity teams: 8 men's and 12 women's.
Baseball
NCAA Tournament Regional Champions: 2014, 2015 NCAA Tournament Appearances: 1965, 1970, 1971, 2014, 2015, 2017 Conference Champions: 1936, 1965, 1970, 1971, 2022 Conference Tournament Champions: 2023
Men's basketball
Burton Shipley was Maryland's first and longest serving basketball coach, but his lengthy tenure from 1923 to 1947 was described as "remarkably quiet".Paul McMullen, Maryland Basketball: Tales from Cole Field House, p. 2, JHU Press, 2002, . At that time, the sport was not widely popular in the mid-Atlantic region and football and boxing were much better drawing spectator sports on the Maryland campus. To capitalize on the popularity, basketball games at Ritchie Coliseum were held as doubleheaders with boxing matches for 26 years.Johnny Holliday, Stephen Moore, John Feinstein, Hoops Tales: Maryland Terrapins Men's Basketball, p. 149, Globe Pequot, 2006, . Bud Millikan became head coach in 1950 and soon led Maryland to consistent respectability within the Southern Conference.Ungrady, p. 82. Defensive point guard Gene Shue averaged 22 points per game and his scoring record stood for two decades.Catching Up With ... former Bullet Gene Shue , The Baltimore Sun, December 3, 2009. In 1955, the small Ritchie Coliseum was replaced by ; games were moved to the larger Cole Field House, centrally located on campus, and when Maryland became a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the fanbase rapidly expanded.Holliday et al, p. 151. Millikan's tenure culminated in 1958 when Maryland won its first Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship and advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament.
In 1969, Lefty Driesell was hired by the University of Maryland. Drisell led the Terrapins to eight NCAA Tournament appearances, a National Invitation Tournament championship, two Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championships, and one Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship.Lefty Driesell Coaching Record, Sports Reference, retrieved June 8, 2011. Maryland also attained a No. 2 Associated Press ranking during four consecutive seasons from 1972 to 1976.
Driesell coached the Maryland Terrapins from 1969 to 1986. During his tenure, he successfully recruited numerous exceptional players, including Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas, Albert King, Buck Williams, and Len Bias.Milestones in Driesell's Career, The Washington Post, October 30, 1986.
At Maryland, Driesell began the now nationwide tradition of Midnight Madness. According to longstanding NCAA rules, college basketball teams were not permitted to begin practices until October 15. Driesell traditionally began the first practice with a requirement that his players run one mile in six minutes, but found that the players were too fatigued to practice effectively immediately afterwards. At 12:03 a.m. on October 15, 1971, Driesell held a one-mile run at the track around Byrd Stadium, where a crowd of 1,000 fans had gathered after learning of the unorthodox practice session. The event soon became a tradition to build excitement for the basketball team's upcoming season.He made midnight a time for madness; The college basketball tradition that resumes tonight began in 1971 with Maryland's Lefty Driesell, St. Petersburg Times, October 13, 2006. Midnight Madness has been adopted by many national programs such as UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State and Duke.
In 1972, Maryland defeated Niagara, 100–69, to secure the National Invitation Tournament championship. Driesell said that the season attained the three goals he had set for the program at the time of his hiring: "national prominence", "national ranking", and "a national championship".Terps attain two of their three goals set by coach Driesell, The Free Lance-Star, March 27, 1972.
In the 1974 ACC men's basketball tournament, Maryland was defeated by North Carolina State University in overtime, 103–100. Many consider it to be one of the greatest college basketball games of all time. North Carolina State University eventually went on to win the 1974 National Championship. Maryland finished No. 4 in the final Associated Press poll that season, prompting the NCAA to make a landmark decision in 1975. The NCAA tournament committee expanded the field from 32 to 48 teams, which opened the door for more than one team from a conference.
In 1984, Driesell led the team to the school's second ACC Tournament Championship.Driesell Keeps Perspective, Star-News, March 10, 1984. In December 1985, the university gave Driesell a ten-year contract extension. Earlier that same year, Driesell was made an Honorary M Club member. He ended his career at Maryland with a 348–159 overall record. His winning percentage of .686 is the best ever for a Maryland coach.
Gary Williams became head coach in 1989, bringing Maryland back to national prominence following difficult years. By March 2010, Williams was the fifth-winningest active coach in the country and the third-winningest coach all-time in the ACC (behind only Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski). In 2002, Williams led the Terrapins to the program's first national championship, defeating Indiana, 64–52. Williams retired in May 2011 and Mark Turgeon was hired from Texas A&M to be his successor.
NCAA National Champions: 2002 NCAA Final Fours: 2001, 2002 NCAA Tournament appearances: 1958, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1981, 1983 - 1986, 1994 - 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 Conference Champions: 1932, 1975, 1980, 1995, 2002, 2010, 2020 Conference Tournament Champions: 1931, 1958, 1984, 2004
Women's basketball
Maryland Terrapins women's basketball has become one of the most celebrated sports on campus, due to significant success in the Brenda Frese era. After experiencing a period of national prominence under head coach, Chris Weller in the 1980s, including a pair of trips to the Final Four in 1982 and 1989, the Maryland Terrapins reached their full potential in 2006, winning the NCAA National Championship. In the ACC, Maryland was regularly a threat to win regular season and conference tournament championships, doing so on five and ten occasions, respectively. Since joining the Big Ten in the 2014–2015 season, Maryland has featured in every Big Ten tournament Championship game (as of 2021), winning five titles, and has won six of seven regular season championships.
NCAA National Champions: 2006 NCAA/AIAW Final Fours: 1978, 1982, 1989, 2006, 2014, 2015 NCAA/AIAW Tournament Appearances: 1978 - 1984, 1986, 1988 - 1993, 1997, 2001, 2004 - 2009, 2011 - 2019, 2021 Conference Champions: 1979, 1982, 1988, 1989, 2009, 2015 - 2017, 2019–2021 Conference Tournament Champions: 1978, 1979, 1981 - 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 2009, 2012, 2015 - 2017, 2020, 2021
Field hockey
The Maryland Terrapins field hockey team is among the most accomplished field hockey programs in the country, and have won a total of eight NCAA national championships and 16 conference championships (10 in the ACC and 6 in the Big Ten).
NCAA National Champions: 1987, 1993, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011 NCAA Final Fours: 1987, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1999 - 2001, 2003 - 2006, 2008 - 2013, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022 NCAA Tournament Appearances: 1978 - 1984, 1986, 1988 - 1993, 1997, 2001, 2004 - 2019, 2021, 2022 Conference Champions: 1992, 1998 - 2000, 2001, 2005, 2008 - 2010, 2013 - 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022
Football