text: curley byrd harry clifton " curley " byrd ( february 12 , 1889 – october 2 , 1970 ) was an american university administrator , educator , athlete , coach , and politician . byrd began a long association with the university of maryland as an undergraduate in 1905 , and eventually rose to the position of university president from 1936 to 1954 . in the interim , he had also served as the university 's athletic director and head coach for the football and baseball teams . byrd amassed a 119 – 82 – 15 record in football from 1911 to 1934 and 88 – 73 – 4 record in baseball from 1913 to 1923 . byrd stadium , the university 's current football field , and its predecessor were both named in his honor . in graduate school at georgetown university , he became one of football 's early users of the newly legalized forward pass , and he had a brief baseball career including one season as pitcher for the san francisco seals . byrd resigned as university president in order to enter politics in 1954 . he ran an unsuccessful campaign as the democratic candidate for maryland governor against theodore mckeldin . byrd later received appointments to state offices with responsibilities in the potomac river and chesapeake bay . in the 1960s , he made unsuccessful bids for seats in each chamber of the united states congress . byrd was a proponent of a " separate but equal " status of racial segregation in his roles as both university administrator and political candidate . in 2015 , the student government association agreed to a resolution in support of changing the name of byrd stadium because of byrd 's segregationist history . on september 28 , 2015 , university of maryland president wallace loh appointed task force to develop viewpoints and options . the university president then made a recommendation to the university system of maryland board of regents — the governing body of maryland state universities — to change the name to " maryland stadium " . the ultimate decision on any name change rests with the board of regents . on december 11 , 2015 , the board of regents voted 12 - 5 to remove the " byrd " from the stadium 's name , renaming it maryland stadium for the time being . early life harry clifton byrd was born on february 12 , 1889 , in crisfield , maryland . he was one of six children of and county commissioner william franklin byrd and his wife sallie may byrd . in his youth , byrd worked in the chesapeake bay fishing industry , where he saved most of his money to finance his college education . he attended crisfield high school , where he excelled on the baseball diamond , and was also known as his hometown 's first recreational jogger . a later source described how he appeared in 1905 : " he was tall , and as the saying goes , built like a whip . he had a startlingly handsome face , with big , flashing eyes , a splotch of florid red on each cheek , and a mane of black curly hair ... he looked like rupert of , and had all of that worthy 's cold , sinister resolution about everything that he did . " college career in 1905 , byrd graduated from crisfield high school and enrolled at the maryland agricultural college , which is now known as the university of maryland . byrd was a star college athlete and participated in varsity football , baseball , and track . he served as the football team captain in 1907 , as the pitcher on the baseball team , and set a school record 10 . 0 - second 100 - yard dash in track . before leaving crisfield , byrd 's father warned him not to " try to play that thing called football . " he ignored the advice and reported for football practice where head coach fred k. nielsen told the undersized byrd to " play with the kids " and that " football 's a man 's game . " he was allowed , however , to fill in as an end on the scout team due to a shortage of players . after sitting out the first three games , nielsen sent byrd in as a substitute against navy , and his play was impressive enough to earn a position on the first team . after the elder byrd read of his son 's newfound stardom in the newspaper , he wrote , " since you 're going to play football , i 'm glad to see you 're doing it well . " during the summers and on weekends , byrd supplemented his income by continuing work as a fisherman . he graduated second in his class with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering in 1908 . after graduation from maryland , byrd spent the next three years doing graduate work in law and journalism at george washington university , georgetown university , and western maryland college ( now known as mcdaniel college ) . in a time before eligibility limitations , he played football at george washington and georgetown and ran track at western maryland . at georgetown in 1909 , he was called the first quarterback in the east to master the forward pass , several years before gus dorais of notre dame did so in 1913 . according to the georgetown hoyas : a story of a football team , dorais 's " end - over - end ' discus ' throw was an exact copy " of byrd 's passing technique , and the irish " got the headlines because they had a press agent and georgetown didn 't . " byrd also played for maryland - based semi - professional baseball teams while pursuing his graduate studies . in 1910 , the chicago white sox signed byrd , but he was soon traded to the san francisco seals , a semi - professional pacific coast league baseball team with whom he pitched in 1912 . he returned to maryland later that year , and in 1913 , married katherine dunlop turnbull . before they divorced twenty years later , the couple had three sons and a daughter : harry , sterling , william , and evelyn . coaching career in 1911 , injuries claimed enough maryland agricultural football players that the team could no longer field a practice squad to scrimmage against . the college turned to byrd , who was serving as coach at western high school in georgetown , and he was willing to help his alma mater with scrimmages . byrd later replaced head coach charley donnelly , who resigned mid - season after accumulating a 2 – 4 – 2 record . byrd led the aggies to wins in both of their final games of the season , against western maryland , 6 – 0 , and gallaudet , 6 – 2 . in 1913 , the maryland agricultural college hired byrd as an instructor in english and history , and he was named the head coach of the track and baseball teams , the latter of which he coached through 1923 . according to author david in tales from the maryland terrapins , the university initially offered byrd $ 300 to coach football , but he demanded $ 1 , 200 . the two parties came to agree upon that salary for all of his coaching and teaching duties which spanned nine months of the year . byrd also worked as a sportswriter for the washington star , a job he held until 1932 . as football coach , he developed a unique offensive scheme called the " byrd system " , which combined elements of the single - wing and double - wing formations . one of byrd 's track and football players , geary eppley , said , " he never yelled in practice or at a game ... he pointed out mistakes and explained what you did wrong . he took a calm approach . the strongest thing he 'd say was ' for sake . ' " in 1915 , his duties were expanded to include those of athletic director . that same year , he requested funds for the construction of the campus 's first dedicated football stadium , which was named in his honor . during his tenure as head football coach from 1911 to 1934 , he compiled a 119 – 82 – 15 record . administrative career byrd was appointed to the post of assistant university president in 1918 . he became a proponent of unification of the maryland agricultural college and the baltimore professional schools into a single public university of maryland , and he was instrumental in what became the consolidation act of 1920 . byrd named the student newspaper the diamondback in 1921 , and in 1933 , he was the lead advocate for the adoption of the diamondback terrapin as the university 's official nickname and mascot . in 1932 , byrd was promoted to vice president of the university . in july 1935 , he was named the acting president of the university , and was officially appointed to the presidency in february 1936 . during his tenure , the budget , facilities , faculty , and enrollment increased significantly . the school budget was increased and the campus expanded largely due to byrd 's deft political maneuvering in annapolis and washington . the school also saw a large growth in enrollment , due in part to returning veterans making use of the g.i. bill after world war ii . from 1945 to 1948 , the university budget increased from $ 4 . 8 million to $ 9 . 8 million . between 1935 and 1954 , student enrollment grew from 3 , 400 to 16 , 000 . over that same time period , the value of the campus rose from $ 5 million to $ 65 million . byrd , however stood fast on faculty salaries . he reportedly said , " ph.d.s are a dime a dozen . " for years , byrd refused to release the university 's financial records to state legislators , and how exactly he secured funding for many of his projects was largely a mystery . according to booster jack heise , byrd financed a new basketball arena through the out - of - state tuition , paid by the federal government , for maryland high school graduates who attended the university on the g.i. bill . the general accounting office calculated that the extra fees totaled more than $ 2 million , but determined that they were within the bounds of legality . byrd was a staunch supporter of a " separate but equal " state university system . the princess anne campus provided agricultural education and morgan state college provided liberal arts education for the state 's black students , while the university of maryland remained open only to white students . in 1951 , governor theodore mckeldin criticized the university of maryland as an example of wasteful state spending , and was especially critical of expansions to the princess anne campus , which was geographically disconnected from the state 's black population and not attracting many students to study agriculture . contractors had begun projects at the college before approval from the public works board , which was described as a usual practice under byrd . byrd acceded to mckeldin and secured approval from the board for both the princess anne expansions as well as a sizable increase to the university budget . in 1945 , byrd hired 32 - year - old paul " bear " bryant to his first head coaching post . bryant led the terrapins to a 6 – 2 – 1 record , but the two personalities clashed . the tensions came to a head when byrd reinstated a player bryant had suspended for violating team rules . bryant resigned as head coach an hour later , which caused an uproar among students until he interceded to restore order . two years later , byrd hired jim tatum as football coach . the year prior at oklahoma , tatum fielded a winning team , but the athletic department ran up a huge deficit and some players were paid in violation of conference rules , which resulted in university president george cross firing athletic director jap haskell . the media blamed tatum for his termination . tatum told cross to refute tatum 's role in the matter , and threatened to reveal the oklahoma team had been paid $ 6 , 000 after the 1947 gator bowl . cross asked byrd to persuade tatum not to go public , and according to author gary king in an autumn remembered , byrd replied , " , hell ! i 'll tell him to keep his damn mouth shut ! " tatum remained as coach at maryland from 1947 to 1955 , and amassed a 73 – 15 – 4 record . in 1948 , the national collegiate athletic association passed a set of regulations called the purity code , later renamed the sanity code , which permitted student - athletes free tuition and meals , but required that part - time jobs be legitimate and their pay commensurate with the work . schools found to be in violation could be expelled from the ncaa . in 1950 , seven schools , called the " sinful seven " — virginia , maryland , vmi , virginia tech , the citadel , boston college , and villanova — admitted they were in violation of the code . time magazine asserted violators were far more widespread than those seven that had confessed . maryland was the only sinful seven school that was also a major football power with eighty scholarship players , and byrd led them in their stand against the sanity code . university of virginia president colgate darden called the code hypocritical , and the citadel 's leadership refused to " lie to stay in the association " and requested termination of its ncaa membership . at the convention to decide virginia 's fate , byrd said , " does ohio state want to vote for expulsion of virginia , when ohio state has facilities to take care of four or five as many athletes as virginia ? " the ensuing vote fell 25 short of the needed two - thirds majority to expel the sinful seven . in 1951 , the football team 's 10 – 0 season culminated in a 28 – 13 victory over first - ranked tennessee in the 1952 sugar bowl . maryland 's participation , however , was in violation of a southern conference resolution passed mid - season that banned participation in postseason bowl games . byrd had maryland accept the bowl invitation , despite tatum 's objections . the coach thought the threatened sanctions , which prevented maryland from playing any southern conference games the following season , would severely disadvantage his team . in 1952 , maryland and clemson , which had also violated the bowl game ban , were sanctioned , and the incident hastened the break - up of the southern conference and formation of the atlantic coast conference , of which both schools were founding members . opponents in the baltimore sun alleged that byrd emphasized athletics over academics and belittled him as the only college football coach to rise to the position of university president . among the campus expansions , byrd was responsible for the construction of byrd stadium in 1950 and cole field house in 1955 , which at the time was the largest basketball arena in the southern conference . critics alleged that both facilities were constructed at the expense of campus libraries . byrd also built the university of maryland golf course in 1959 . byrd resigned from the post in 1953 and his tenure ended effectively on december 31 . political career byrd resigned from the presidency in january 1954 to embark upon an unsuccessful campaign for governor of maryland . he narrowly beat perennial candidate george p. mahoney in the democratic primary by 50 . 64 % to 49 . 37 % and faced republican incumbent mckeldin in the general election . byrd campaigned on his stance of separate but equal . mckeldin won comfortable majorities in baltimore 's black , jewish , and upper - middle class white districts , while byrd took all of the blue - collar white south and east baltimore neighborhoods , including mckeldin 's boyhood home along eutaw street . elsewhere in the state , however , middle - class white voters did not support byrd . byrd lost by 54 . 46 % to 45 . 54 % . he went on to make unsuccessful bids for the democratic nominations to the u.s. senate in 1964 and the u.s. congress in 1966 . despite his lack of success in campaigning , byrd did receive several gubernatorial appointments : chairman of the maryland tidewater fisheries commission , maryland commissioner to the potomac river fisheries commission , and chairman of the commission on chesapeake bay affairs . in 1959 , governor j. millard tawes appointed byrd as commissioner of tidewater fisheries . when a fisheries officer killed a virginian waterman illegally dredging , byrd disarmed the force . the action was credited with helping to end the long - standing potomac river oyster wars . following the example of other oyster - producing states , byrd authorized fossil shell mining to produce , crushed shells used to form oyster beds . byrd ignored tawes ' warning to " stay away from private planting " by promoting the formation of leasing cooperatives , but his plan failed due to opposition in the maryland general assembly . business career byrd was also active in business and civic organizations . in 1951 , he was involved in the merger that formed the suburban trust company , which in 1960 was the largest bank in maryland outside of baltimore city . he later served as the company 's vice president . byrd also did business in real estate and construction . byrd was active with service organizations . in 1962 , he became a member of the loyal order of the moose . byrd organized the college park rotary club and served as its first president . byrd was a member of the defense orientation conference association ( ) , an organization which educates civilians on the defense department 's programs and policies . death byrd died of a heart condition on october 2 , 1970 at the university of maryland hospital in baltimore , maryland . he is interred at asbury united methodist church cemetery in crisfield , maryland , and his epitaph reads : " harry clifton ' curley ' byrd , educator – statesman – conservationist , president emeritus , father and builder of the greater consolidated university of maryland , founded 1920 . " byrd was inducted into the university of maryland athletic hall of fame in 1982 . head coaching record football baseball