Evolution of a College Football Fan (Pt. 2)
/A few years later in 1983, I found myself at the University of Maryland, partly because of its location (I am also a big history buff), and partly because of their sports programs. Here I got to witness “big time” college football in person at Byrd Stadium, an un-impressive horseshoe-style stadium. I can’t downplay it too much though because some pretty impressive Eastern teams came to visit: Penn State, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Syracuse, UNC, Clemson, and Miami with Jimmy Johnson.
As with any good college experience at these events, there are always some memorable moments. There is always the first game (even though it was a loss), which was against a good West Virginia team coached by Don Nehlen whose quarterback was Jeff Hostetler. Then there was the first homecoming, with a weak Duke team as the opponent. It wasn’t so much the game, as the pre-game that was memorable. This is when I horrified my mother for a second time. Soon after their arrival from Maine, my oldest brother drove my parents to the dorm, but unfortunately it was the night of a keg party, and my room was the host. My roommate, Doug, and I were caught red-handed. My brother had a proud look on his face as he laughed, but my mother was appalled, and that was the last time in my four years at UMD that she set foot in my dorm!
A couple of other games at Byrd that come to mind would be our upset of #3 ranked UNC in 1983 (we were ranked #13 at the time) and another frustrating loss to Penn State. Needless to say about the Tar Heel victory, the goal posts were torn down, and I am proud to say that my dorm mates of Cambridge A, 3rd floor came away with one of the posts! I am not proud to say that I missed out on this exciting opportunity. As for the Penn State loss, we were ranked #7 heading into the season, but even that couldn’t stop our 20-game losing streak to them that extended back to 1961! While I was a Terp, we went 0-3, and the losses were by a total of 5 points.
I was also lucky enough to experience two “Neutral Site” games in Baltimore at Memorial Stadium. The first was against Clemson, who had “The Fridge” and were only three years removed from their NCAA Championship in 1981. The second game was against Jimmie Johnson’s 7th ranked Miami Hurricanes, a team that we beat the year ago thanks t Frank Reich’s miracle comeback. We weren’t so fortunate in Baltimore, but it was a great game as we lost by seven points. My parents were able to attend this game as well, which was probably unfortunate for my mother. As you can guess, I mortified her for the third time and final time in all things related to tailgating. I won’t get into details, but the trip home was prolonged a bit because of extra stops due to having a beer or two too many.