With an unassuming brick exterior and aged wood paneling indoors, Ledo’s Restaurant fits modestly into a shopping center off University Boulevard – a humble home for the pizzeria recently featured in “The Best Pizza in America” series on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Gayle King, a 1976 graduate of the university, traveled from New York to Chicago to Phoenix on her quest for the greatest pizza series, which she hosted on Winfrey’s show. But Ledo’s famed rectangle pizzas, which highlighted college memories for generations of Terps including King, still resonate with her the strongest.

“I have always liked pizza, but there is no pizza in the world that I am still talking about and remembering and thinking about 30 years later,” she said on Oprah’s website.

An institution for many Maryland graduates of King’s era, Ledo’s developed a tradition of rectangle pizzas topped with provolone cheese and cemented its status as a haven for Terrapin sports fans.

Regularly playing host to sports legends such as Yogi Berra and Johnny Unitas, Ledo’s would ultimately build its fame from the hungry Terp fans known to wait for in line for as long as two hours after basketball games during the restaurant’s peak in the 1970s, said store owner Tommy Marcos.

Thirty years later, Ledo’s looks the same inside. Many of the photographs that adorn the walls have hung since it first opened in 1955. Its gently worn carpet suggests congeniality before cuisine.

“It hasn’t changed at all,” said Ellen Ternis, a 1968 graduate. “They were the neighborhood pizza place. It’s a comfortable place, just kind of blue collar.”

It’s this inviting atmosphere that Marcos, and his son Tommy Jr., have fostered through years of chatting with customers that keeps them coming back. And at 82 years old, while Marcos Sr. has to go through dialysis three times a week, it’s the customers who keep him coming into work every day but Sunday.

“Meeting people, that’s the greatest thing,” he said. “I’ve had customers coming in for 30 years. You can almost set your clock for some of them, what time they’ll be there and all.”

At a viewing party of the Oprah taping on Saturday, many of these old-time regulars flocked to Ledo’s, some coming from as away as Pennsylvania. And like the crowds that squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder at the bar in the restaurant’s prime, alumni returned, this time to watch King during half-time of the Terrapin football game.

As the game continued, the Marcoses celebrated their return to the limelight, handing out free pizzas to some newcomers who were attracted solely by King’s rave review.

And as kicker Dave Ennis clinched a Terp victory with a game-winning field goal, customers erupted in cheers. For Marcos Jr., it echoed memories of the standing ovations former coach Lefty Driessell received when he’d frequently pop into Ledo’s after a victory.

“Maryland is their team, and this is their pizza place,” Marcos Jr. said of the many customers. “It couldn’t have been better. Maryland won, and we were on Oprah.”

But for a restaurant that has crafted its legacy around the university community, college students were conspicuously missing from Saturday’s festivities. Only a handful showed up for the party.

“We’re very student friendly, but a lot of them just don’t know about us,” Marcos Jr. said.

While it has been overshadowed since its heyday by the bustle of Route 1 and the convenience of delivery chains, the famous taste of Ledo’s pizza remains the same.

“It’s the best pizza in the world,” Ternis said. “I’ve never had pepperoni so chewy and fat. The crust is flaky, soft toward the middle, but the sides are where its crispy.”

Developed over a month of tests and trials, the unique flavor is largely from smoked provolone cheese that gives the pizza more of a tangy taste than traditional pies covered in mozzarella, Marcos Sr. said.

Since the success of its original location tucked away on University Boulevard, Ledo’s stores have popped up across the country, many of them operated by Maryland alumni. But there’s still a mystique that surrounds the original.

“They say all the pizzas are the same at all the Ledo’s, but to me the original is still the best,” said Milt Thomas, who grew up eating the pizza, but has since moved.

And while he can’t quite point out why, every time he returns to College Park, he returns to Ledo’s.

“I’ve been around the world. You can have your Chicago. You can have your New York. Any place I’ve been, if I could get a Ledo’s pizza, that would be my first choice.”

Contact reporter Ben Slivnick at slivnickdbk@gmail.com