Athletics Traditions

At one men’s home basketball game every year, students break into a choreographed flash mob, turning the student section into a sea of unified hopping and swaying.

Following every home game, the Maryland football and the team make their way over to the student section and Maryland’s marching band, the Mighty Sound of Maryland, to sing the Maryland victory song and alma mater.

Charles “Lefty” Driesell, Maryland’s men’s basketball coach from 1969 to 1986, is generally credited with beginning the national college basketball tradition known as “Midnight Madness." In 1971, he invited the public to watch his players take laps around the track that used to encircle the field at then-Byrd Stadium at midnight on the first official day of team practice. Now called the Midnight Mile, the event takes place in October just a couple weeks before the start of the season. Each year, Maryland Basketball coaches and student-athletes are joined by 750-1,000 students at Kehoe Track & Field Complex/Ludwig Field to run a ceremonial mile around the track, signaling the "tipoff" of the new basketball season.

This annual intrasquad scrimmage held at the end of spring football practice dates to at least 1948. In 1951, the scrimmage became a contest between current Terps and recent alums, but reverted to an intrasquad format in 1963, with the first usage of “red” and “white” to describe the teams appearing the next year. In more recent years, the Red and White Game is a featured event on Maryland Day.

The Mighty Sound of Maryland, dance and cheer squads, and Testudo wish the football team good luck before home games as the student-athletes arrive on campus three hours before kickoff. Terps cheer them on along Fieldhouse Drive as they head to Jones-Hill House.