McDaniel Green Terror football

The McDaniel Green Terror football team represents McDaniel College in American football. The Green Terror have a historic past with many legendary coaches and players, such as quarterback Eugene "Stoney" Willis, who invented the shovel pass; All-American and five-time All-NFL running back Bill Shepherd, and Hall of Fame coaches Dick Harlow and Rip Engle.

History

McDaniel, formerly known as Western Maryland, football dates back to 1891 when the first game was played against northern rival Gettysburg College.^[1]

The Green Terror would become a power house in college football from 1925 to 1934. During this decade the Terror Squad had 3 undefeated seasons, despite only having around 500 students. The Green Terror were nationally ranked and were commonly beating schools such as Boston College & Bucknell University 40 to 0. Other impressive victories included, beating University of Maryland College Park 39-7, Georgetown University 20 to 0, and Temple University 23 to 0.^[2] Many of these victories were played in front of +20,000 crowds at Baltimore Memorial Stadium. Such was the case in 1927 when they won the MacArthur Cup handed out by General Douglas MacArthur, when The Terror beat an all-army team made up of the best players from all the regional army bases, 48-0.^[3](p288)

In 1934, during the Great Depression, Western Maryland was invited to play in the first Orange Bowl. Coach Dick Harlow declined so that his best player, Bill Shepherd, could play in the then more prestigious East–West Shrine Game, which hosted over 55,000 fans. Shepherd was the MVP of the game, playing 59 of 60 minutes as his his East team lost. In the initial Orange Bowl (which only 5,000 attended^[4]) Bucknell, shut out earlier in the season by the Terror, defeated the Miami Hurricanes 26-0.^[3](p334)

In 1947 The Green Terror football team was featured in a cartoon in the New Yorker before a Western Maryland – Harvard Crimson game. Soon after World War II, WMC decided to play only other small colleges described as the college's natural rivals. It was then that McDaniel's arch rivalry (its old one being College Park), began with Johns Hopkins. The McDaniel-Hopkins rivalry game has annually been the last game of the regular season since 1947 and played over 90 times since their first meeting in 1894. Since 2009 it has become a trophy game known as the Maryland Railroad Lantern game.

Another historic moment was in 1992 when McDaniel became the first college football team to play in Russia. Against an all-Europe team The Terror won 47 to 4. In the 1990s and 2000s the Terror would go on to be nationally ranked, going 58-7, and have great players such as running back Eric Frees who would go on to set the then NCAA D3 rushing record in 1992.^[3](p638)

References