Connection to COLE

plays a game or two in Reynolds every year, I think it’s a good idea, if the cost isn’t prohibitive.

I agree that we should do this. I have pitched the idea to friends before and think it would be a good way to get people out to the exhibition game or an early out of conference game. However I was told that athletics no longer owns cole field house. Just as the university has to rent Comcast for graduation, athletics would have to rent Cole from campus recreations to use it. Doesn’t make sense but it seems like the cost of everything is what’s holding this back.

What repairs are you talking about? I know there are enough exits. The lighting still works. I’m hardpressed to find what would need to be done to host a one time event? Open to objections tho.

I go way back – enrolled in 1970. There was no place like Cole when it was rocking. It was absolutely impossible to communicate with the person next to you – too f@$ing loud. If there is film somewherre, you have to see Brad Davis, John Lucas, and Mo Howard on a three man break – has never been done better. Sweet, sweet memories.

I have had classes in Cole so I would assume it is up to code…

The short answer unfortunately, is, it’s all about the money; All you need to do is look at Duke/Cameron…; More to topic though, Cole was special. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to some other venues, and between personal experiences and talking wit ha lot of fans who have been to a lot of other venues, Cole was always near the top.

My 2 favorite things:

1- walking in the press entrance on the back side. This was ground level, and you walked right by the locker room entrances; if you took a client or your kid in this way and took a slow stroll, you’d see the players, coaches, celebs … and then walk into the floor area … it was awesome for soaking in the whole ambiance.

2- the upper circle allowed you to walk around the entire building and never miss a play, and to also see everyone else you were looking for; much like the 2nd level at RFK, it was a social aspect as much as anything else, but it maintained the "family’ feel too.

COMCAST is nice, but it’s a sell out for the big bucks.

Long live Cole!!!!

Lots of great memories there. When I was a kid growing up in CP (I’ll be 50 in April), I recall you could sneak under the rails to get down onto the floor, and then sit right down on the letters on the baseline. We’d hand the ball up to the players or ref for an inbound play right in front of us. That’s before they sold all courtside seats for big bucks at Comcast. We’d wait until a blowout was winding down and walk behind the MD bench and ask guys for their wristbands (all the cool guys wore them back in the day). We’d play outdoors the next day with our buddies wearing the wristbands we got from Brad Davis or some other idol of ours. So frickin cool. Anybody remember swimming at the indoor pool they had there? They had bars below the waterline separating the shallow area from main pool and I almost got stuck once…..

We spent 24+ hours both waiting for tickets and also the day/nigh before the Notre Dame, UVA, UNC games. The Notre Dame game was on national TV, and me & my roomie raced in, got behind the ND bench, and we screamed “DIGGER …. DIGGER …DIGGER” pretty much the entire time the ball was in possession. People told us we were on the tv shots all game, red faced and white-eyed … and we lost in last minute. Pretty sure Kelly Tripuka nailed a shot; We also lost to UNC that year when Al Wood was their stud. The students chanted “Dont F*ck with Buck” before the games …. oh yeah …. good times …

When I first started attending MD in 1985 the atmosphere was crazy. Not for the sports teams, but the school itself. People came to MD because it was known as a top 10 party school. On warm days you were lucky if half the class showed for lectures. On those same days you could find 5-6,000 people at “Byrd Beach” “studying”. I was one of them, studying the hot girls in bathing suits who were also “studying”.

Things began to change rapidly. The administration began increasing admission standards to try and move us away from Party School status. Enrollment went down, tuition went up, and the fun meter started plunging. I can remember King Tom speaking at half time of an unimportant game and the students rushing the field and tearing down the goalposts after the game. I don’t even think we won!

I remember being in Byrd with a girl one night, only to see 30 guys rushing some frat climb the goalposts, pull down their pants and moon the frat member that then took their pictures. Down they came for the next hazing ritual.

I remember sitting in the lobby of one of the halls talking to another girl as two guys came in streaking nude excusing themselves as they hurdled our couch, ran past the desk and down the steps out the back door.

As an RA, I remember Quad yells. On one night one of the girls screamed “Suck my tit!” Another RA looked at me, shrugged, and said “Show it!”, and she did.

At another unimportant football game, I turned to see someone climbing the bleachers behind me. He crawled between the rails and sat next to me winded. (Apparently just walking up the bleachers properly was too much trouble.) Turns out he was a kid I went to high school with. He offered me the vodka he had slipped into the game in his pants in a zip lock bag. Mixed great with the grape juice they sold at the concession stand, he said.

Thirteen years before me, the campus had a bar on campus! My sister had two naked guys on LSD come running into her room and jump out her window. Yeah, they died.

These were “normal” times for us. This stuff doesn’t happen anymore. You can’t expect book nerds to turn around and be crazy people full of character. The two don’t go together. MIT and Harvard are not known for their unruliness or for pushing the boundaries of social acceptability.

Hell, in 2002 while I was waiting to get in to watch the Natty off campus as an alumni, the police began setting up barriers. The kid next to me said loud enough for the cops to hear, “Look! They’re giving us ammunition!” “That’s the spirit!”, I thought to myself.

We are timid nerds now. That’s why we don’t show for the games. That’s why we leave games early. That’s why all we do is whine and blame others for our lack of support. Blame the coaches, blame the administration, blame everyone but ourselves. MD has lost its character.

Cole is the arena of the old guard, Comcast is the arena of the new. Things change, and we need to accept progress. Not to mention, if you want a game in Cole, why not one in ritchie?

Springsteen at Ritchie
pickup games in both, getting layups rejected by Tara Heiss in both
the great Zang Auerbach murals in Cole.lobby

If we play there, only one team make sense. UTEP because Cole means as much to them as the Terps, since 1966.

I have no actual connection, no basketball memories of Cole. Maryland basketball didn’t even get on my radar until I decided to come here. In fact the first MD game I watched (on TV) was the 2010 MD-Duke game. First time I was in Cole was on a visit the previous summer, when my family took refuge there during a rainstorm we got caught in, haha.

But seriously, when you know the history, just stepping inside and sitting in the seats gives you this feeling that I can’t exactly explain. It’s like even though I never experienced any of the history, there’s just this overwhelming feeling of importance and I like to try to imagine in my mind a packed house and just how loud and crazy it must’ve been. In short, I would absolutely love if somehow they could play a game in Cole Field House again. Or March Madness. Honestly though, I just plain feel lucky that I get to be on a campus with it for four years and can go in there whenever I want. It’s special.

2002 season, Duke, Stevie Blake stealing the ball from “Jay” Williams at the end of the 1st half…; I had season tix in section N, and as Jayson W came across mid-court, he looked back at coach K, and Blake slithered up on him a few steps… and I looked at my nephew and tole him to keep an eye on Blake; Jay looks back a second time, Blake moves a few more quick little steps, and I tell my nephew, “one more look back and he’s gone ..” and then Blake has the ball and is off & running, make the lay up, and the place went freeking crazy. Should have had a +1 too. A lot of people say that is the best play/memory they had at Cole. All made better by the fact that those 2 were always at each others throats. Stevie and Juan had the fire in their bellies and never backed down. Go Terps!

Honestly, thanks for all of your comments, listening to all your stories from back in the day are amazing. Makes you even prouder to be a Terp, if that is at all possible.

He was a BETTER Michael Jordan. I miss that guy.

If you went to MD during his time your heart sank on the news. One of the few times in my life I can tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing…….like the Challenger accident and 9-11.

I attended almost every Men’s BB game (and a bunch of women’s games) in Cole from ‘88-’92 unless I was back in NY for break. Getting there at 11am (2 hours before tip) on a weekend game day running for a courtside seat under the basket then reading the paper for an hour or so before warmups. A few things I’ll never forget:

1. Teyon McCoy’s 25 ft shot (a couple seconds after the buzzer) to send the Duke game to OT in ‘90. Duke eventually won 114-111 in OT, but our bench guys played valiantly vs. a stacked Duke team after Walt, Massenburg, Broadnax and McCoy among others all fouled out. There was no replay (obviously) and it was so loud that no one, including the refs heard the buzzer on McCoy’s shot. And subsequently the metal folding chairs behind the basket looked like a war zone, from the jumping students.

2. The tip-in by Walt Williams to beat Carolina at the buzzer (or so we thought) in ’92. The court was stormed 2×. Once after the tip-in (jumping over the press tables) and quickly cleared to put 1.3 back on the clock only to storm it again!

3. The women’s game vs. UVA in ‘92 was crazy. Promoted in week’s leading up to the game around campus, it was a sellout. Most unique atmosphere in a hoops game I have ever been a part of. The enthusiasm was nuts, everyone knew they were part of something special.

Of course there were many other memories, including the heat. Place will remain legendary to me.

So many memories of Cole.

Back in the Summer of ‘95 I was asked to be a coach/counselor at Gary’s basketball camp since Matt Raydo had been suspended for gambling and they needed a last minute replacement coach/counselor. It got me access to parts of Cole I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. The locker room seemed oddly average. Maybe my adulation and worship of Terps Bball made me envision something much more grand, but I recall being underwhelmed. The weight room was worse. I remember my high school having a comparable, if not better, weight room. The side/back gym was ancient as well. Just a small gym with bad wooden floors. My favorite part of the experience had to be playing pick up ball after the camp was done for the day. Running the court at Cole with the likes of Mario Lucas, Johnny Rhodes, Laron Profit, Duane Simpkins – it was great.