The Maryland’s men’s lacrosse team started the 1975 season slow before claiming the program’s most recent national championship.
Coming off a title loss in 1974, the Terps dropped back-to-back contests to Virginia and Navy as injuries to key players hindered cohesion. The team, though, rallied to win its last four games by an average of 8.25 goals.
For two former players on that squad — midfielder Frank Urso and goalkeeper Gary Niels — the similarities between the 1975 group and this year’s Terps are evident.
Coach John Tillman’s squad started the season 1-2 with consecutive losses to Yale and Notre Dame after losing in the 2015 national title game. Offseason injuries and surgeries limited the Terps’ continuity.
But Maryland has gelled on the field since then, winning 15 consecutive contests entering this weekend’s NCAA tournament semifinal. That momentum has the program’s alumni confident the championship drought could end at 41 years.
“It looks exactly like ’75,” Urso said. “The team is just so aligned, so together and so not caring about how that ball’s getting in the net, just as long as it’s getting there.”
Last May, most of the 1975 players convened in Philadelphia for championship weekend, celebrating a one-point semifinal win against Johns Hopkins before watching the Terps suffer a 10-5 loss to Denver. They tailgated and sat with the players’ parents.
The group again reunited this season during the Terps’ 10-8 victory against Ohio State. After the team celebrated the 40-year anniversary of its title last year, the players attended the game April 24, and Athletic Director Kevin Anderson presented each with a personalized championship ring.
Since then, Urso and Niels have been texting and Facebook messaging their former teammates with observations about this year’s team and plans for the final four.
They’ve been impressed with the No. 1-seed Terps’ recent run, including their first conference tournament title since 2011 and their average margin of victory of 6.5 goals in Maryland’s first two NCAA tournament games.
In 2015, the duo admitted the alumni’s conversations had a tinge of nervousness and surprise that the sixth-seeded Terps advanced so far.
“Last year we were really hoping they would win,” Niels said. “This year, we’re really expecting them to win.”
Niels cautioned that would be a burden. But the former netminder has formed a relationship with goalkeeper Kyle Bernlohr, and he doesn’t believe the redshirt senior and his veteran-laden team will wilt under the pressure.
The two netminders met last February when Tillman invited Niels to speak to the team. Every time Niels talks to Tillman, he gives the coach a good-luck message to relay to Bernlohr.
Niels also extended an invite to Bernlohr at the program’s fall golf tournament.
The former co-captain was in a group with Bill O’Donnell, a goalkeeper on the Terps’ first title team in 1973. Niels called Bernlohr over and told him they would love to welcome him into their “elite” group as the third goalie in program history to start and win a national championship.
Urso is ready to cede his position as a member of the Maryland’s last national championship team, too. The four-time All-American jokes he’s “only relevant because we haven’t won in 41 years.”
“For me, it’s ‘Oh my gosh, win this stinkin’ thing,'” Urso said. “”I’m ready for them to forget about me and move on.”
Urso and Niels will again be in Philadelphia, where they’re planning to attend another tailgate with many alumni. Last year, Niels told Anderson he wanted to be on the Lincoln Financial Field turf when the Terps won the crown.
Even if the Terps did prevail, Anderson rejected the idea, so Niels doesn’t plan to ask this weekend.
“If they win it, man,” Niels said, “I’m over that bar. I’m on the field.”
