Jim Tatum
James M. "Big Jim" Tatum (July 22, 1913 – July 23, 1959) was an American football and baseball player and coach. Tatum served as the head football coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1942, 1956–1958), the University of Oklahoma (1946), and the University of Maryland, College Park (1947–1955), compiling a career college football record of 100–35–7. His 1953 Maryland team won a national title. As a head coach, he employed the split-T formation with great success, a system he had learned as an assistant under Don Faurot at the Iowa Pre-Flight School during World War II. Tatum was also the head baseball coach at Cornell University from 1937 to 1939, tallying a mark of 20–40–1. Tatum's career was cut short by his untimely death in 1959. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1984.
Maryland Terrapins football under Jim Tatum
During Tatum's tenure, several Maryland players were awarded prestigious individual honors. Two Maryland quarterbacks were runners-up for the Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to college football's most outstanding player. In 1952, Jack Scarbath was a first runner-up to Oklahoma running back Billy Vessels. In 1953, Bernie Faloney was a third runner-up, with John Lattner of Notre Dame winning the award. Dick Modzelewski won the 1952 Outland Trophy, the annual award given to the nation's most outstanding interior lineman.