Former Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen will be awarded the Coaches Legacy Award at the 63rd Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame induction banquet at Martin’s West in Baltimore on Nov. 21.
Friedgen will be the third recipient of the award that was created in 2022. Gary Williams and Chris Weller won the first two. The Coaches Legacy Award is given to leaders “whose lifetime career has brought honor and distinction to Maryland sports,” according to the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame’s website.
“To me, it’s a great honor,” Friedgen said on Glenn Clark Radio July 19. “Really wasn’t expecting it. I’m really humbled by it and looking forward to going up there.”
Friedgen, 77, has a rich history with the Maryland football program, having coached on the sidelines for 15 seasons while also playing for the Terps from 1965 through 1968.
Friedgen’s hard-nosed approach to coaching during his 40-plus-year career was no secret, admitting he “ran a tough ship” at Maryland. But in his eyes, that style of coaching paid off, and it’s evident, even years later.
“It’s like being a good father. You have to raise the expectation level, not only on the field but off the field and in the classroom,” Friedgen said. “I was pretty demanding that they go to class and be good citizens. I had a character education program. My drug tests, I was probably the severest on campus with that. Kids don’t mind hard coaching as long as they know you care. If you don’t care for them and you don’t care for them other than just football, they see through that and then they resent it.”
Friedgen’s path to becoming the Terps’ head coach — and before that, a player — was long and winding.
He was a high school quarterback in Harrison, N.Y., where he played for his father, “Big Ralph.” Then-Maryland assistant Lee Corso recruited Friedgen to the Terps after Maryland’s head coach, Tom Nugent, was alerted of the talented signal-caller by his brother, John Nugent, the head coach at Friedgen’s rival high school.
Friedgen played for three different head coaches in his time at Maryland. After Nugent’s firing, new coach Lou Saban shifted Friedgen to fullback. Saban only lasted one year, however, and his successor, Bob Ward, moved Friedgen to offensive guard, where he finished out his playing career.
Upon earning his bachelor’s degree from the university, Friedgen worked as a graduate assistant for three seasons. He then ventured off to three other schools across the next decade before returning to College Park as the offensive coordinator from 1982 to 1986. Maryland won eight-plus games in four of those five seasons, winning conference championships in 1983, 1984 and 1985.
Friedgen took Georgia Tech’s offensive coordinator job in 1986 after a 5-5 season at Maryland. He later joined the San Diego Chargers’ staff for five seasons before another stop at Georgia Tech as the offensive coordinator. He then landed the head coaching gig with the Terps in 2001.
“Everything has a purpose, I think, in life as you look back at it,” Friedgen said. “I think [God] wanted me to be there at that time.”
The players’ goal in Friedgen’s first season was to win six games and make a bowl game, a feat that group of players had yet to accomplish. Instead, the Terps cruised to a 10-win season, claiming the No. 6 spot in the AP poll at one point and making their way to the Orange Bowl.
Maryland won five out of seven bowl games in Friedgen’s tenure, the most of any coach in school history. He credited the drive of his players for helping him turn around the program in such quick fashion.
“The kids I had were tired of losing. I was at Maryland at the right place at the right time, and the kids were really good players that were really dedicated to winning. Once they got a taste of winning, they liked it,” he said.
Friedgen had wanted the Maryland job long before 2001, pointing out his first two attempts to land it were unsuccessful. Friedgen said he wasn’t even in consideration the previous times. But he was grateful to earn the gig when he did.
“What’s so rewarding for me right now is a week doesn’t go by that I don’t get calls from players that I haven’t coached in 20, 30 years,” Friedgen said. “… If that happens, you must have had some impact on their lives.”
For more from Friedgen, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics