Harry “Curly” Byrd

western hs football coach; political figure

Harry Clifton “Curley” Byrd (February 12, 1889 – October 2, 1970) was an American university administrator, educator, athlete, coach, and politician. Byrd began a long association with the University of Maryland as an undergraduate in 1905, and eventually rose to the position of university president from 1936 to 1954.

In the interim, he had also served as the university’s athletic director and head coach for the football and baseball teams. In 1911, injuries claimed enough Maryland Agricultural football players that the team could no longer field a practice squad to scrimmage against. The college turned to Byrd, who was serving as coach at Western High School in Georgetown, and he was willing to help his alma mater with scrimmages. Byrd later replaced head coach Charley Donnelly, who resigned mid-season after accumulating a 2–4–2 record. Byrd amassed a 119–82–15 record in football from 1911 to 1934 and 88–73–4 record in baseball from 1913 to 1923. In graduate school at Georgetown University, he became one of football’s early users of the newly legalized forward pass, and he had a brief baseball career including one season as pitcher for the San Francisco Seals.

Byrd resigned as university president in order to enter politics in 1954. He ran an unsuccessful campaign as the Democratic candidate for Maryland governor against Theodore McKeldin. Byrd later received appointments to state offices with responsibilities in the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. In the 1960s, he made unsuccessful bids for seats in each chamber of the United States Congress. Byrd was a proponent of a “separate but equal” status of racial segregation in his roles as both university administrator and political candidate.

In 2015, the Student Government Association agreed to a resolution in support of changing the name of Byrd Stadium because they noted that Byrd was “a racist and a segregationist” who “barred blacks from participating in sports and enrolling into the University until 1951”. On September 28, 2015, University of Maryland President Wallace Loh appointed a task force to develop viewpoints and options. The University President then made a recommendation to the University System of Maryland Board of Regents — the governing body of Maryland state universities — to change the name to “Maryland Stadium”. The ultimate decision on any name change rests with the Board of Regents. On December 11, 2015, the Board of Regents voted 12–5 to remove the “Byrd” from the stadium’s name, renaming it Maryland Stadium for the time being.

Byrd died of a heart condition on October 2, 1970, at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He is interred at Asbury United Methodist Church Cemetery in Crisfield, Maryland, and his epitaph reads: “Harry Clifton ‘Curley’ Byrd, Educator–Statesman–Conservationist, President Emeritus, Father and Builder of the Greater Consolidated University of Maryland, Founded 1920.” Byrd was inducted into the University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982.

Citation: Wikipedia contributors. (2024, May 8). Curley Byrd. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:34, June 11, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curley_Byrd