A Look Back: Terrapin Coaching Legends

In April, as women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese made her way through the thousands of supporters on hand to welcome the 2006 NCAA champs home from Boston, a thunderous roar of “Brenda! Brenda! Brenda!” arose from the crowd.

BYRD

Brenda Frese had arrived, joining other Terrapin coaches—Gary Williams ’68, Ralph Friedgen ’70, M.A. ’72, Missy Meharg ’90, Cindy Timchal and Sasho Cirovski—who excel in competition and are beloved by Maryland fans.

While there is a full roster of winning coaches throughout Terrapin sports history, only a select few have attained an almost legendary status. Listed below is our short list of Maryland coaching legends. To share your recollections of these coaching greats, or add to the list, go to the Terp Blog (Terp3101.squarespace.com). —TV

• In 1912, HARRY C. "CURLEY" BYRD '08* went from star student-athlete to head football coach. Under his leadership (first as coach and later as director of athletics), Maryland’s football, baseball, basketball, track and tennis programs all won conference championships, with the lacrosse, cross-country and rifle teams each laying claim to a national championship.

CLAIBORNE

• Men’s basketball coach CHARLES "LEFTY" DRIESELL is perhaps best known for starting what has become the national tradition of Midnight Madness. Driesell never had a losing season at Maryland, and he coached some of the school’s greatest players, including Len Elmore ’78, Tom McMillen ’74, Buck Williams ’88 and Len Bias.

• Men’s lacrosse coach JACK FABER ’26, M.S. ’27, PH.D. ’37* coached the team for 33 years (while also serving as a prominent faculty member in biology), leading the Terps to nine national championships, eight ACC titles and 249 victories.

KEHOE

• JIM KEHOE ’40 coached the Terrapin track and field program to 48 Southern Conference and ACC indoor and outdoor championships during a 16-year span. Later, as director of athletics, he spearheaded a nine-year run that produced 40 ACC team championships.

• Starting in 1946, wrestling coach WILLIAM EARL "SULLY" KROUSE '42* led his teams to 22 conference championships, including the first 16 in the (then) newly formed Atlantic Coast Conference.

• JIM TATUM* led Maryland’s football team to its only undefeated season in 1951, knocking off top-ranked Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl. From 1950–55, Tatum’s teams were a combined 51-8-2, with the 1953 team earning the national championship.

• Women’s basketball coach CHRIS WELLER '66 spent her entire 27-year collegiate coaching career at her alma mater, winning a record eight ACC championships along the way. Her 499 wins rank in the Top 25 nationally for all-time NCAA coaching wins.

TYLER

• SUE TYLER PH.D. '86 coached Maryland women’s lacrosse for 16 seasons, compiling a 195–61–3 record. Her teams won AIAW national titles in 1981 and 1986. She also coached the Terrapin field hockey team to a national title in 1987.

*deceased

SCORE Card

Men's basketball coach Gary Williams ’68 will join at least 10 other head coaches this spring for Operation Hardwood 2, a weeklong trip to the Persian Gulf in support of American troops. The coaches will work one-on-one with teams of service members, who will then compete in a mock NCAA basketball tournament.

Maryland has earned four national championships this past year, more than any other university. The latest came in April, when just two days after Maryland’s field hockey, men's soccer and women's basketball teams were honored at the White House for their NCAA titles, the Terrapin Competitive Cheer team won the 2006 National Cheerleaders Association Division I National Championship. Go Terps!

Athletic Director Deborah A. Yow, a native of Gibsonville, N.C., was named to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in May, where members include former Washington Redskin Sonny Jurgensen, golfer Arnold Palmer and race car driver Richard Petty.

The National Soccer Coaches Association named men’s soccer coach Sasho Cirovski National Coach of the Year for 2006, the year his team won its first national title since 1968.

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