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
In 1954, Curley Byrd resigned as university president in order to enter state politics, and was replaced by Dr. Wilson Elkins, a Rhodes scholar and former Texas quarterback. Elkins worked to improve academic standards at the school, which had been criticized for overemphasizing football. One year during Tatum's tenure, the school awarded 93 football scholarships averaging $944 each ($ adjusted for inflation). "The Diamondback" student newspaper said that, while Tatum was at Maryland, it "was an era in which an inadequate stadium became ultra-adequate, and an inadequate library became more inadequate."