The 1950 Maryland State Hawks football team was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

team that represented Maryland State College (now known as

University of Maryland Eastern Shore University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Princess Anne, Maryland. It is part of the University System of Maryland. It is classified among "Research Colleges and Universities" ...

) during the

1950 college football season The 1950 college football season was the 82nd season of intercollegiate football in the United States. It concluded with four teams having a claim to the national championship: * Oklahoma finished the regular season undefeated (9–0) and was ...

. In their third season under head coach

Vernon McCain Vernon E. "Skip" McCain (June 4, 1908 – April 5, 1993) was an American college football and college basketball coach and mathematics professor. He served as the head football coach at Maryland State College—now known as the University of Mary ...

, the team compiled an 8–0 record and outscored opponents by a total of 361 to 32. The 1950 team achieved the second consecutive undefeated season for the program. The

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

and 1950 teams went 16–0 and outscored opponents by a combined total of 671 to 40. The 1950 Maryland State team was ranked No. 3 among the nation's black college football teams according to the ''

Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States. It was acquired in 1965 by ...

'' and its Dickinson Rating System. In the final Dickinson rankings, three undefeated black colleges received the following point totals:

Florida A&M Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. ...

(28.76); Southern (28.50); and Maryland State (28.00). However, Florida A&M lost to in the

Orange Blossom Classic The Orange Blossom Classic is an American annual college football game first held from 1933 to 1978 and again since 2021. Starting back up in 2021 the game has been played on Labor Day weekend. History In its first incarnation, the Classic featu ...

, after the final Dickinson rankings were released. Maryland State was led on offense by halfback Sylvester Polk. Polk led the nation in 1949 with 129 points scored. During the 1950 season, Polk scored 13 touchdowns for 78 points and totaled 1,275 rushing yards on 79 carries, an average of 16.1 yards per carry.

Schedule

References

{{Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks football navbox Maryland State Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks football seasons College football undefeated seasons Maryland State Hawks football