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Last Issue:
Tuesday,
December 18 2007
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Maryland Football's Not-so-Auspicious Start
By Keith Swaney, graduate student in the history/library and information science program
Published on 20-Sep-05
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A mix of professors and students, the university's first football team strikes a confident pose.
Photo courtesy of University Archives
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Though fans of Terps football
can be proud of today's athletes, the university's
team didn't always
offer players worth cheering.
According to the Maryland
Agricultural College Bulletin of
April 1915, cadets at the Maryland
Agricultural College
(M.A.C.) started playing football
in the fall of 1890 when 11
men organized a club team.
The squad only played two
games, against Sandy Spring
and Laurel high schools, that
year and was defeated in both
contests.The following season,
unfortunately, did not produce
better results for the team; the
group, according to the Bulletin,
was "composed of practically
the same menn" who also
had "little success."
Unlike the first two club
teams, the 1892 squad received
funding from the college.
Howard Strickler, a professor of
physical education at the
M.A.C.,was named coach of
the team, and Sothoron Key, a
junior, became its manager.
According to Kings of American
Football:The University of
Maryland, 1890-1952, Strickler,
along with the commandant
of cadets of the M.A.C., actually
saw considerable playing time
throughout the season. A report from the Monthly
Chronicle that covered the
team's game against Episcopal
High School also made mention
of a Professor Mead, who ran
the football for positive
yardage. Despite the efforts of
these faculty and administrators,
however, the squad floundered
throughout its first official
season in 1892, losing
games to St. Johns (50-0), Johns
Hopkins (62-0), and Episcopal
High School (16-0).
To deepen the team's misery,
the game against Episcopal High
featured a rather humorous
spectacle. As Morris Bealle
pointed out in Kings of American Football, M.A.C.'s Pearse "Shorty" Prough ran the
wrong way with the football for 30 yards,"came to his senses,
reversed his field, cut over to the sideline and nearly went all
the way. He ended up with a 35-yard net gain." Newspaper
coverage of this game also mentioned this play, reporting that
an Episcopal High player tackled Prough at the 15-yard line and
that Prough claimed, after the game, he could have gone all the
way if he had received one more block. While the 1892 season
ended with three overwhelming defeats for the football team,
the squad bounced back the following year, easily winning the
Washington, D.C. championship under the guidance of
Sothoron Key, with a 6-0 record. |
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