MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS:
What a B1G year for the Terps!
On July 1, 2014, the University of Maryland officially became a member of the Big Ten Conference, ushering in a new era in Terrapin Athletics. We hit the ground running in our inaugural season in the league and the hard work and dedication of our student-athletes, coaches and staff has certainly not gone unnoticed.
With Big Ten titles in field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s basketball and women’s lacrosse, the Terps finished with seven conference championships in the 2014-15 season.
Not a bad first impression.
Academically, a record 11 intercollegiate sport programs including baseball, men’s golf, women’s basketball, women’s cross country, gymnastics, softball, women’s soccer, tennis, women’s indoor track, women’s outdoor track, and volleyball earned perfect single year APR scores of 1,000 in the latest 2013-2014 APR report announced by the NCAA. Football earned program-best multi-year and single-year APR marks. Malina Howard (women’s basketball) and Zoe Stukenberg (women’s lacrosse) were both honored by the NCAA with the Elite 89 Award honoring the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 89 championships.
In addition to the aforementioned Big Ten Conference success, our teams continued to thrive nationally as well. The women’s lacrosse team hoisted the national championship trophy for a second consecutive season and an unprecedented 13th time while the men’s program advanced all the way to the national title game. The women’s basketball team advanced to the Final Four for a second straight season for the first time in program history. Men’s basketball went dancing for the first time since 2010 and won a school-record 26 games during the regular season. Men’s soccer and field hockey continued their lengthy tradition of trips to the NCAA Tournament and the football team went 5-1 on the road with wins over traditional football powers Penn State and Michigan while punching its ticket to a bowl game for a second consecutive season. Maryland baseball took down top seed UCLA while marching on to a second straight NCAA Super Regionals.
In our first season in the Big Ten, we increased our season ticket sales in football 25 percent from 2013 and 35 percent from 2012 and experienced a 14 percent increase in our attendance figures, the second-largest increase among Power Five schools. The Terrapin Club Scholarship Fund welcomed over 900 brand new donors while an additional 1,100 donors increased their contributions over prior years. Throughout the year our alumni, parents and friends made commitments totaling approximately $40 million to support Maryland Athletics.
It has surely been an electric inaugural campaign for your Terps and we hope you have enjoyed the ride thus far. Our vision is to be the best in everything that we do and our commitment to academic excellence is paramount in helping our student-athletes build a foundation for a successful life after intercollegiate athletics.
We hope you enjoy the 2014-15 annual review and we are looking forward to a B1G and bright 2015-16!
Go Terps!
Kevin Anderson
