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
After the season, disaffection within the Southern Conference prompted seven former members, including Maryland, to form the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The schism was due in part to the ban on bowl participation, and the vast geographic dispersion of and disparity between the sizes of member schools. Clemson, another founding ACC member, had likewise been forced to play outside the Southern Conference in 1952.