Big Ten primer: Maryland’s greatest football moment

The Maryland Terrapins haven’t been in the Big Ten very long, and within the Big Ten, they haven’t done anything of note. Yet, they are a Big Ten member school, and their football history deserves to be looked at along with all the other schools which were part of the conference before the four Pac-12 refugees joined them.

Maryland has had some very successful clusters of seasons, but the Terps haven’t been annually relevant the way college football blue bloods have. Maryland was highly successful in a 13-year period from 1973 through 1985. The Terps had 10 or more wins in three straight years from 2001 through 2003. However, their best run as a football program came from 1949 through 1955 under coach Jim Tatum. In those seven seasons, Maryland had four seasons with no more than one loss. In 1953, Maryland won the national championship, which could reasonably be seen as the program’s mountaintop moment. Yet, in those days, the national title was awarded before the bowls. Maryland lost its bowl game to Oklahoma and therefore did not finish with an unbeaten record.

The one unbeaten, untied season in Maryland football history came two years earlier, in 1951. The Terrapins went 10-0, and unlike their 1953 team, they finished the job in their bowl game. Maryland defeated Tennessee and legendary coach Bob Neyland to complete the perfect season. Interestingly, this was Maryland’s last year in the Southern Conference. In 1953, Maryland joined a league called the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Realignment was highly active back then.

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