The stunning victory by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, over the University of Virginia on Friday night — the biggest upset ever in the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament — catapulted a school whose competitive claim to fame had long been chess into sports history.
But the U.M.B.C. Cinderella story transcends athletics, and has been decades in the making.
The university, founded in 1966, is better known for producing the most African-American students who go on to complete combined M.D.-Ph.D. programs than it is for turning out professional athletes. Before its 20-point win over the nation’s top-ranked basketball team, it was the reigning National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition champion. A statue of the school’s mascot, a Chesapeake Bay retriever named True Grit, has a shiny nose from the tradition of students’ rubbing it for good luck before finals, rather than before big games.
U.M.B.C., which has about 14,000 students and is situated about a 10-minute drive from downtown Baltimore, has come to embrace its underdog status in Maryland’s public university system. It is among the newer of the system’s 12 institutions, and it has worked to overcome a reputation as a commuter school without a football team.
After last night’s victory, the U.M.B.C. athletic department took a jab at the system’s flagship school, the University of Maryland, College Park, which had a blowout victory over the Retrievers earlier in the season but failed to make the N.C.A.A. tournament. U.M.B.C. retweeted a photo of a Maryland fan holding a sign at that December game saying that U.M.B.C. stood for “University of Maryland Backup College.”
“Hopefully you enjoyed our game from your couch dude!” the tweet said.
Over the years, U.M.B.C. has quietly carved out an identity of its own, in part shaped by national rankings listing it as “up and coming” and one of the “most innovative” universities. (...)
Dr. Hrabowski, who has led the institution for 26 years, was born in Birmingham, Ala., at the start of the civil rights movement, and grew up in the same segregated neighborhood as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He spent five days in jail at age 12 for participating in a civil rights protest. He obtained his undergraduate degree, from Hampton University, at 19, and his doctorate, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at 24.
His efforts have helped drive U.M.B.C.’s acclaimed Meyerhoff Scholars Program to the forefront of the push to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering and related fields, and the program has been replicated across the country. Dr. Hrabowski said he was most proud that it had been able to flourish over the years at a predominantly white institution.
“The reason we do well with minorities is because we do so well with everybody else,” he said.
Dr. Hrabowski has helped build the university, which was founded on farmland and initially educated 750 students, to include three huge research centers funded by NASA, a $170 million humanities building and a $140 million interdisciplinary building that is under construction.
He calls it “a middle-class campus,” but one that looks like the “plaza of nations at the U.N.,” representing the school’s motto of “inclusive excellence.” More than the win last night, Dr. Hrabowski said he was proud of what else was on display: a diverse group in the stands, in the band, on the dance team.
“You saw in the U.M.B.C. community what America wants to be,” he said.
U.M.B.C. sends 40 percent of its students to graduate programs, including Harvard and Stanford. Its graduates include high-profile researchers at Johns Hopkins and college presidents. It is a leading feeder to the National Security Agency and Northrop Grumman.
“It’s a campus where you come because you want to be a serious student, no matter your background, across disciplines,” he said. (Two of the school’s basketball players have 4.0 G.P.A.s.) (...)
It was not lost on him that Virginia is one of the oldest public universities in the country; has a legacy that stretches back to one of the nation’s founders; and has $9 billion more in endowment money than U.M.B.C., which is trying to raise its first $100 million.
“Public universities can be strong academically, even if they don’t have hundreds of years and a major budget,” he said. “We’ve got to help the public understand that institutions of all types have to have quality.”
by Erica L. Green, NY Times | Read more:
Image: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
But the U.M.B.C. Cinderella story transcends athletics, and has been decades in the making.
The university, founded in 1966, is better known for producing the most African-American students who go on to complete combined M.D.-Ph.D. programs than it is for turning out professional athletes. Before its 20-point win over the nation’s top-ranked basketball team, it was the reigning National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition champion. A statue of the school’s mascot, a Chesapeake Bay retriever named True Grit, has a shiny nose from the tradition of students’ rubbing it for good luck before finals, rather than before big games.U.M.B.C., which has about 14,000 students and is situated about a 10-minute drive from downtown Baltimore, has come to embrace its underdog status in Maryland’s public university system. It is among the newer of the system’s 12 institutions, and it has worked to overcome a reputation as a commuter school without a football team.
After last night’s victory, the U.M.B.C. athletic department took a jab at the system’s flagship school, the University of Maryland, College Park, which had a blowout victory over the Retrievers earlier in the season but failed to make the N.C.A.A. tournament. U.M.B.C. retweeted a photo of a Maryland fan holding a sign at that December game saying that U.M.B.C. stood for “University of Maryland Backup College.”
“Hopefully you enjoyed our game from your couch dude!” the tweet said.
Over the years, U.M.B.C. has quietly carved out an identity of its own, in part shaped by national rankings listing it as “up and coming” and one of the “most innovative” universities. (...)
Dr. Hrabowski, who has led the institution for 26 years, was born in Birmingham, Ala., at the start of the civil rights movement, and grew up in the same segregated neighborhood as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He spent five days in jail at age 12 for participating in a civil rights protest. He obtained his undergraduate degree, from Hampton University, at 19, and his doctorate, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at 24.
His efforts have helped drive U.M.B.C.’s acclaimed Meyerhoff Scholars Program to the forefront of the push to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering and related fields, and the program has been replicated across the country. Dr. Hrabowski said he was most proud that it had been able to flourish over the years at a predominantly white institution.
“The reason we do well with minorities is because we do so well with everybody else,” he said.
Dr. Hrabowski has helped build the university, which was founded on farmland and initially educated 750 students, to include three huge research centers funded by NASA, a $170 million humanities building and a $140 million interdisciplinary building that is under construction.
He calls it “a middle-class campus,” but one that looks like the “plaza of nations at the U.N.,” representing the school’s motto of “inclusive excellence.” More than the win last night, Dr. Hrabowski said he was proud of what else was on display: a diverse group in the stands, in the band, on the dance team.
“You saw in the U.M.B.C. community what America wants to be,” he said.
U.M.B.C. sends 40 percent of its students to graduate programs, including Harvard and Stanford. Its graduates include high-profile researchers at Johns Hopkins and college presidents. It is a leading feeder to the National Security Agency and Northrop Grumman.
“It’s a campus where you come because you want to be a serious student, no matter your background, across disciplines,” he said. (Two of the school’s basketball players have 4.0 G.P.A.s.) (...)
It was not lost on him that Virginia is one of the oldest public universities in the country; has a legacy that stretches back to one of the nation’s founders; and has $9 billion more in endowment money than U.M.B.C., which is trying to raise its first $100 million.
“Public universities can be strong academically, even if they don’t have hundreds of years and a major budget,” he said. “We’ve got to help the public understand that institutions of all types have to have quality.”
by Erica L. Green, NY Times | Read more:
Image: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
