By Pamela Babcock

Meet the men who stack the deck in Maryland's favor

Clockwise from top left: Jack Flynn ’46, M.B.A. ’48, Jack Scarbath ’54, Jack Zane ’60 and Jack Heise ’47. Illustrations by Joshua Harless and Ashley Gilmore.

ONE PLAYED FOOTBALL, another lacrosse, the third baseball and basketball and the fourth wrote about a range of sports. But after accomplished careers off the field and the court, they’ve all become leading members of the same team—Maryland’s team. Meet the Four Jacks: three former Terrapin stars and a man who long chronicled Maryland sports. Three are in the university’s sports hall of fame and the fourth is soon to be inducted.

On October 26, former lacrosse player and consummate Terp fan Jack Heise ’47 will be ushered into Maryland’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Among other accomplishments, Heise is former president of the M Club and the Terrapin Club, and now serves as volunteer legal counsel for the M Club.

When his visage is mounted on a plaque in the Comcast Center, Heise will join a trio of late 1940s to 1960-era Hall of Fame members—Jack Scarbath, Jack Flynn and Jack Zane—who’ve bolstered Maryland’s athletic program and its campus with their unwavering loyalty and generous financial support.

“Each in their own right has done—and still does—a tremendous amount not only for the M Club, but for the athletics department and the university in general,” says David Diehl ’74, executive director of the M Club. “And it just so happens they’re all named Jack.”

While these alumni were only in their 20s and 30s when Cole Field House debuted in 1955, they embraced the Comcast Center when it opened in 2002. And their commitment has remained steadfast despite some inevitable changes and challenges to Maryland’s Athletics program.

“We’ve been very fortunate and when you have this fortune thrust upon you, you have to pay back,” Scarbath says. “I think that all four of the Jacks have given in their own special way.”

Dual Athlete Stays Loyal “Win or Lose”

Jack Flynn ’46, M.B.A ’48, was an All-Southern selection in baseball and basketball and led the conference in scoring for basketball.

“There’s a loyal connection there,” he says of his fellow Jacks and M Club members. “We follow the teams, win or lose.”

Flynn, a retired aviation executive, is married to Dorothy McCaslin Flynn ’48, and lives in Chevy Chase, Md. The second executive director of the M Club, he was the first member to serve on the Athletic Council, which sets policy for Maryland athletics. He also served as the club’s historian and penned the club’s history.

Flynn is also a former chairman of Maryland’s Athletic Hall of Fame and a longtime contributor to the Terrapin Club, which raises scholarship funds for scholar-athletes.

Over the years, Flynn says he has witnessed not only the tremendous growth of the campus, but also major changes in college athletics.

“It’s a whole different generation now,” Flynn reflects. “In the early days, you could play more than one sport, but today it’s very difficult because your full concentration all year round has to be on one.”

Star Quarterback Turns Ambassador

Jack Scarbath ’54, an All-American quarterback and Heisman Trophy runner-up, is an ambassador for Maryland in many ways.

“I think that as every decade comes along, people pick up where others left off,” Scarbath says. “When the four of us came along, we were picking up for others and carried forth through today.”

The 1950s were heydays for Maryland’s football team, which was crowned national champ in 1953. In 1950, Scarbath christened Byrd Stadium with its first touchdown during the opening game against Navy. The following year, he led the Terps to a 1951 Sugar Bowl victory against No. 1-ranked Tennessee. Scarbath went on to play pro football for the Washington Redskins and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Scarbath is a longtime member of the M Club, which was founded in 1923 and is the oldest athletic letter winner’s group in the country.

He’s married to Marilyn Brown Scarbath ’53, a former Terp cheerleader, and lives outside Rising Sun, Md. He also is former chairman of the Maryland Educational Foundation, which helps provide opportunities for scholar-athletes in financial need, and served on the university’s Board of Regents.

Mr. Maryland Full of Spirit

Jack Heise ’47, a semi-retired attorney who lives in Bethesda, Md., will be the first Hall of Fame inductee honored in the meritorious service category.

He’s married to Jackie Mosey Morley Heise ’49, a former Terp cheerleader. Both were honored with the alumni association’s Spirit of Maryland Award in 2006.

As an undergrad, Heise was manager of the basketball team. He is a past president of the M Club; the Terrapin Club; the Maryland Alumni Association and the Maryland Educational Foundation. He also served on the board of the University of Maryland, College Park Foundation.

Heise attends all home and away football and basketball games, and all women’s home basketball games. In addition, he’s often a fixture at on-campus events such as field hockey, lacrosse and volleyball.

And consider this stat: Heise has missed only three ACC basketball tournament games since 1946. “I’m a fervent fan and it’s a major part of our life,”­ he announces proudly, “That’s why I got the name ‘Mr. Maryland.’”

Former Reporter is “Mr. Terp Everything”

Jack Zane ’60 was Maryland’s director of sports information and has a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of Maryland athletics.

“I’ve seen the athletic department grow from 12 varsity sports to 27 varsity teams with the advent of Title IX and women’s sports,” Zane reflects.

Zane, known as “Mr. Terp Everything,” was a sports reporter for The Diamondback. After college, he took a job at George Washington University compiling and reporting sports information for the media before Maryland called him home.

Zane also worked as Maryland’s ticket manager and later as executive director of the Walk of Fame, an exhibit commemorating university athletes in the Comcast Center. He serves as Maryland’s point-person for Sports Legends at Camden Yards, a Baltimore museum.

The Silver Spring, Md., resident and his wife, Judy, a devoted Terp fan and alumni association volunteer, travel with the football and basketball teams. Zane handles tickets for players’ families, friends and coaches and serves as the M Club’s historian.

“We were so close to the program back then and we just stayed a part of it,” Zane says. “You just work wherever you’re needed.” TERP

Terp thanks Jane McCarl ’52 for submitting this story idea. She and the Jacks, longtime friends, have remained loyal Maryland supporters and have volunteered for many Maryland-friendly causes together over the years.

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