1950 Maryland Terrapins football team
Maryland was led by fourth-year head coach Jim Tatum, who "Time" magazine called "the most successful major college coach in the game" during his nine-year tenure at College Park. To date, Tatum remains the winningest Maryland football coach of the modern era, with a winning percentage of 0.819. The team was led on the field by sophomore quarterback and future Heisman Trophy runner-up Jack Scarbath who made his first career start in the season-opener.
Maryland Terrapins football under Jim Tatum
Seven Maryland players received first-team All-American honors: Bernie Faloney, Stan Jones, Dick Modzelewski, Bob Pellegrini, Mike Sandusky, Jack Scarbath, and Bob Ward (twice honored). Seven Maryland players received second-team All-American honors: Tom Cosgrove, Chet Hanulak, Ray Krouse, Dick Modzelewski, Ed Modzelewski, Ed Vereb, and Bill Walker (twice honored). Also during this period, the Southern Conference (through 1952) and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) (since 1953) bestowed all-conference honors upon Maryland players twenty-seven times. In later years, two of these players were honored as part of the ACC's 50th Anniversary Team and five were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Jim Tatum was born in McColl, South Carolina on July 22, 1913. He played football as a left tackle like four of his older brothers. Tatum attended the University of North Carolina where he played for Carl Snavely's Tar Heels and earned All-American honors during his senior year in . The following season, he became Snavely's assistant coach and followed him to Cornell in 1936. Tatum returned to North Carolina in 1940 as an assistant coach under Bear Wolf. In 1942, Tatum was promoted into the head coaching job himself and compiled a 5–2–2 record. The next year, during the Second World War, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served as an assistant coach for the Iowa Pre-Flight School football team under Don Faurot, the inventor of the split-T. Future Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson worked as an assistant coach alongside Tatum.