Before Maryland’s 30-24 win on Saturday over Central Florida, it had been 16 years since the Terrapins had ever appeared in double overtime contest. Let’s take a time machine to 2000 to learn more about that game and what the world was like at that time.
The game: Maryland’s last 2OT contest before Saturday came on November 4, 2000. The Terps were at home and beat NC State 35-28.
The game featured three players on offense who went on to have notable NFL careers. Shaun Hill called the signals for Maryland and has started for four different NFL teams in his career. LaMont Jordan ran for over 100 yards against the Wolfpack defense that game and spent nine seasons in the NFL, including a 1000-yard season with the Oakland Raiders in 2005.
However, the most notable player in that game was a freshman quarterback named Philip Rivers. The Terps held the young QB to under 200 yards passing and the future San Diego Charger was unable to complete even 50 percent of his passes in the loss.
The world of sports: Other notable college football games that happened on that date included no. 3 Miami beating no. 2 Virginia Tech, 41-21, behind two Santana Moss touchdowns and a pair of Ed Reed interceptions. Elsewhere, eventual national champion Oklahoma walloped Baylor 56-7 while Heisman winner Chris Weinke passed for over 500 yards in Florida State’s blowout win over Clemson.
In other sports, the New York Yankees were just a few days removed from winning the World Series over the New York Mets, 4-1. The day after Maryland’s win, the Ravens beat the Bengals on their way to winning their first Super Bowl a few months later.
The world of entertainment: On Nov. 4, the top movie in theaters was Charlie’s Angels, while the top song was Come on Over Baby (All I Want Is You) by Christina Aguilera. On television, some of the top shows were The West Wing, The Sopranos, Will & Grace and Everyone Loves Raymond.
The world of politics: When Maryland beat NC State, Bill Clinton was the president. However, everyone knew that an important election to find his replacement was looming between the Democrats’ Al Gore and the Republicans’ George W. Bush. Bush won in one of the more controversial elections in American history.
Elsewhere in politics, the Speaker of the House was Republican Dennis Hastert, while Maryland’s governor was Democrat Parris Glendening.
The age of the current students: When that game happened, most of the senior class was approximately five years old. For some of the freshmen here, their parents might not yet have celebrated their second birthday when the Terps took down Philip Rivers.
