LEN BIAS (Men’s Basketball, 1982-86)
Finished career as Maryland’s all-time leader in more than 15 categories, including points (2147), single-season points (743) and career double-figure scoring games (108)…still holds program records in double-figure scoring games in a season (36) and single-season minutes played (1352)…led Maryland to four consecutive NCAA appearances and the 1984 ACC Tournament title…memorably scored 35 points on Feb. 20, 1986 to lead Maryland to a 77-72 victory over top-ranked North Carolina in Chapel Hill…earned consensus First Team All-America honors in 1986 and named Second Team All-America in 1985…two-time ACC Player of the Year (1985, 86)…ACC Athlete of the Year (1986)…drafted second overall in the 1986 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics.
BOB BONEILLO (Men’s Lacrosse, 1976-80)
All-time Maryland men’s lacrosse points leader with 231…second in program history in assists (143)…led the Terps in points and assists for three straight seasons (1978-1980)…79 points in 1979 is the second-most points in a season…third all-time in assists in a season with 48…led the team in goals in 1979 with 31…first all-time in points (13) and assists (10) in a single game on three goals and 10 assists against Duke in 1979… 1979 Jack Turnbull National Attackman of the Year…1979 ACC Player of the Year…three-time All-ACC selection…1977 Honorable Mention All-American…1978 Second Team All-American…1979 First Team All-American…1980 Third Team All-American.
EDWARD G. COOKE (Men’s Track & Field/Football, 1957-59)
Helped Track & Field to three straight ACC Indoor and Outdoor Championships (1956-1958)…ACC Indoor Champion in Shot Put in 1956 and 1957…ACC Outdoor Champion in Shot Put in 1956, 1957 and 1958…ACC Outdoor Champion in Discus in 1957 and 1958…1957 Honorable Mention All-American in football…1957 First Team All-ACC in football…named ACC Lineman of the Year in 1957…played 10 seasons in the AFL and NFL for the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Colts, New York Titans, New York Jets, Denver Broncos and Miami Dolphins.
MAUREEN ‘BEAN’ SCOTT DUPCAK (Field Hockey/Women’s Lacrosse, 1990-94)
Lettered four times in lacrosse and field hockey…led the Terps’ lacrosse team to four Final Fours, three championship game appearances and a national championship in 1992…named an All-American in lacrosse in 1994…played six years with the U.S. Women’s Lacrosse National Team…won a gold medal at the 1997 Women’s Lacrosse World Cup…returned to Maryland as an assistant coach for the lacrosse team and helped the Terps to the 1997 national championship…named one of the ACC’s 50 all-time best women’s lacrosse players…led the Terps to two field hockey Final Fours, winning the national championship in 1993…three-time Regional All-American in field hockey…All-ACC field hockey in 1993…won a silver medal with Team USA at the Olympic Festival Field Hockey tournament in 1992.
ALEX KAHOE (Women’s Lacrosse, 1996-00)
Led the Terrapins as a goalkeeper to four straight national championships from 1998-2000…three-time team captain…three-time All-American…two-time NCAA Goalkeeper of the Year…three-time ACC Goalie of the Year…1997 ACC Rookie of the Year…returned to Maryland for three seasons as a volunteer assistant primarily working with goalies…has made stops as an assistant coach at Penn, Delaware, Duke and Vermont…named to the ACC 50th Anniversary Team and NCAA 25th Anniversary All-Time Women’s Lacrosse Team.
DEBBIE LYTLE (Women’s Basketball, 1980-83)
Ranks 25th in program history with 1,189 career points…one of 28 players to reach the 1,000 point mark…program record-holder in steals with 315…second all-time in assists with 583…twice recorded nine steals in a game…scored 31 points in a game against NC State in 1981…18th all-time in rebounds with 668… led the team in assists all four years…led or was tied for the lead in steals all four years…led the team in blocked shots and rebounds in 1982 at just 5’10”…1980 All-ACC Tournament Team…1982 NCAA West Regional All-Tournament Team in a year she led the Terps to the Final Four…1981 E.A.I.A.W. All-Region and WBCA All-Region…1982 A.W.S.I. All-American.
SANDY WORTH (Athletic Trainer, 1973-pres.)
Graduated from Maryland in 1973 and immediately began work as an athletic trainer the same year…promoted to head athletic trainer in 1992…head athletic trainer for the football team from 1992-2004…football team captured ACC title in 2001…first woman to serve as head athletic trainer at an ACC school and only woman to serve as head athletic trainer for football in the ACC…trainer for women’s basketball team that won eight ACC titles and advanced to three NCAA Final Fours…also worked with field hockey and women’s lacrosse, which claimed eight national titles while she was the trainer…also worked locally and internationally with United State women’s lacrosse and field hockey for more than 20 years.
CHARLIE WYSOCKI (Football, 1978-82)
Second in program history in career rushing yards with 3,317…became first player in Maryland history to rush for 3,000 career yards…second in program history with 1,359 rushing yards during the 1980 season…holds two of the top-six single-season rushing records at Maryland…tied for fourth all-time in touchdowns with 26…rushed four touchdowns against Virginia in 1981, tied for the second most touchdowns in a game in program history…only player in Maryland history to rush for three 200-yard games…one of two players to rush for 200 yards in a game in two different seasons…second at Maryland with 17 100-yard games…tied for first all-time with eight 100-yard games in a season…first team All-American selection in 1979 and 1980.
John Porter
It is about time Len got in the Hall of Fame, as he is the best player in Maryland history.
· 11/12/2019
freddy from boca
from wash post john feinstein
The question, ultimately, in deciding whether someone is a hall of famer is whether they elevated their sport, their school or their profession. Some sports’ halls of fame rely strictly on numbers, even though they often paint an incomplete picture.
There’s no questioning he lit up the Maryland campus for four years. But there’s also no questioning he left it in darkness for many years in the wake of his death.
i agree with feinstein. no hof for bias.
· 11/12/2019
freddy from boca
By John Feinstein July 16 at 6:49 PM
More than 28 years after his death rocked the sports world, Len Bias is going to be inducted to the University of Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame this October, the school announced Wednesday.
Almost 25 years after being banned from baseball for betting on games, Pete Rose still is begging to be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
John Feinstein is a sports columnist for The Washington Post and also provides commentary for the Golf Channel and National Public Radio. View Archive
The question is this: Should either one of them be in any hall of fame?
Rose is baseball’s all-time hits leader — 4,256 — and if he hadn’t been caught betting on baseball, he would have been a certain first-ballot Hall of Famer five years after he last played in 1986.
Bias is — almost without argument — the greatest basketball player in Maryland history. If he hadn’t died of a cocaine overdose soon after being taken with the No. 2 pick in the 1986 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, he would have been in the school’s Hall of Fame the moment he was eligible.
But greatness as a player has never been an issue with either Rose or Bias. Rose is banned from baseball and can’t be inducted to Cooperstown unless he is reinstated by Commissioner Bud Selig or whoever replaces Selig next year. Bias’s number has hung from the Comcast Center rafters for years, but the school has never seen fit to make him a Hall of Famer until now.
There is no doubt a stain of mendacity on Rose that never fell on Bias. Rose repeatedly lied in depositions for the Dowd Report, the findings of which led to Rose accepting a ban from baseball in 1989. Rose only stopped lying about betting on baseball in 2004 because he was peddling a book and because he believed — as he said as recently as this week — that if he finally fessed up, Selig would reinstate him. He didn’t do it because his conscience caught up with him but because he was tring to sell books and because he thought he would get off the hook if he said, “Yeah, yeah, you got me.”
It hasn’t worked out that way. And Rose has become a pathetic figure, annually showing up on various media outlets during the all-star break to plead his case. His latest rationale is that what he did wasn’t as bad as what steroid users did. That’s debatable — but it’s also irrelevant to his case for induction.
There’s a character clause on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, which is why no one should ever vote for Rose or any of those who took steroids and lied about taking them.
There also is a character clause attached to the Maryland Hall of Fame. Apparently the committee decided 28 years was enough time either to look the other way or believe that dying of a cocaine overdose doesn’t represent a major character flaw.
Of course many people, including Lefty Driesell, who recruited and coached Bias, have convinced themselves Bias had never used cocaine before that night. Others have tried to make Bias into some kind of martyr. He was neither innocent nor a martyr. He was an extraordinarily gifted basketball player who got involved with some bad people. It cost him his life — and it cost Maryland dearly.
Driesell insists to this day that, in spite of his death and the way he died, Bias was good for Maryland, that many players wanted to go there because they were so enamored of him as a player. Gary Williams, who had to deal with the specter of Bias’s death when he arrived on campus in 1989, disagrees.
“I had just gotten to Ohio State when Bias died,” he said Wednesday. “When I heard the news, it was as if I’d been hit over the head with a sledgehammer. He was such a great player, and he played for my alma mater.
“But it wasn’t until I got back to Maryland that I really understood the impact he’d had on the school. There were kids who were great players who were decent students who we couldn’t get in school because Maryland was trying to prove it was recruiting a different kind of athlete.
“Maryland people were still shaken by the whole thing. It hurt our self-image. I remember after we lost to Duke in the Final Four in 2001, feeling as if a lot of Maryland people still thought, ‘Well, that’s who we are. Something’s always going to go wrong.’
“I have mixed emotions about this. As a player, obviously it’s a no-brainer. But I think you have to remember everything in life, not just the good things. It’s as if some people want to forget that the reason he died was because he did something wrong. That’s a fact, and there’s no getting away from that fact. I saw the results of it up close.
“If the publicity from this reminds some kids that this can happen, this does happen, not just to famous athletes, then maybe that way some good can come of it.”
The question, ultimately, in deciding whether someone is a hall of famer is whether they elevated their sport, their school or their profession. Some sports’ halls of fame rely strictly on numbers, even though they often paint an incomplete picture.
In the cases of Bias and Rose, there is no ignoring the numbers — but they can’t stand alone in making final judgment.
Baseball was sullied and damaged by Rose’s actions, which should mean the privilege of being in the Hall of Fame is taken from him in spite of his remarkable achievements.
The same, sadly, should be true of Bias. There’s no questioning he lit up the Maryland campus for four years. But there’s also no questioning he left it in darkness for many years in the wake of his death.
Unlike Rose, Bias should be forgiven. He was young and foolish and paid the most horrible price possible for his mistake. But, like Rose, he should not be honored.
Pitied, certainly. But honored? No.
For more by John Feinstein, visit washingtonpost.com/feinstein.
· 11/12/2019