Retrieving the Greatest Moments of UMBC Athletics History

By Richard Byrne ’86 and Steve Levy ‘85

Athletics has been an essential part of the UMBC experience since the founding of the university. So narrowing down almost five decades of history – and shining a spotlight on a few of the iconic athletes of UMBC history – is not an easy task.

Our guiding principles in what we did include aimed at inclusiveness. We tried to find the moment that spoke to each varsity sport played at UMBC, with equal weight to men’s and women’s teams.

You can read more about the athletes we’ve chosen at our website. And we know didn’t capture every great moment. Not by a long shot. So we want you to share your own with us online as well. Let’s keep the celebration of Retriever athletics going!

1966

UMBC plays its very first intercollegiate game on November 4 – a spirited 4-1 loss by the men’s soccer squad to the University of Maryland, College Park

1974

Men’s baseball standout Mel Hammel ’76, history, pitches the first UMBC no-hitter in a 20-0 win over Coppin State.

STEVE ZERHUSEN ’78

A standout at goalkeeper for UMBC men’s soccer teams of the mid-to-late 1970s, Zerhusen later played professionally for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the pioneering North American Soccer League. As a Retriever, he recorded 372 saves and 22 shutouts.

Favorite moment? My favorite moment was the first game in my sophomore season (1976) against the University of Baltimore – who were defending national champions. It was a scoreless 90 minutes of regulation where I would say we had the better of the action. Late in the game, (current UMBC men’s soccer coach) Pete Caringi – who was an All-American senior for University of Baltimore and a dangerous finisher – came in one-on-one on a through ball. I came out of the goal and met him at the top of the box. He tried to go to my right, but I dove and grabbed the ball. Then with two minutes left in overtime, a UMBC freshman, Ricky Roberts, scored the game winner. It was a tremendous confidence booster for a young team. Image: Ft. Lauderdale Strikers at Detroit Express (NASL)

1975

UMBC men’s cross country team goes 10-0 and wins the Mason-Dixon conference title.

1977

The men’s soccer team becomes the first UMBC team to compete in a postseason NCAA tournament.

KATHY ZERRLAUT

Few people have the broader and deeper perspective on UMBC’s athletics program and its history than Kathy Zerrlaut – who came to UMBC to coach volleyball and lacrosse in 1973. Zerrlaut spent the next 41 years at the university, with 850 total games as a coach in both sports. She also played a key role in the development of the program for more than two decades in the post of senior associate athletic director and compliance officer at UMBC.

Favorite moment? As a coach, I would have to say my lacrosse team winning the ECAC tournament as a Division II program in 1984. The NCAA had not yet offered a championship in women’s lacrosse, so this was big.

Greatest achievement? I’d say my most significant achievement was compliance-oriented. We were the first division one program to be certified by the NCAA. We always prided ourselves on having no major violations.

What’s special about being part of UMBC athletics? The makeup of the athletic department team. I worked with (longtime UMBC athletic director) Charles Brown, who was committed to the success of the entire program. Women’s athletics started to progress in the 24 years of Dr. Brown’s tenure, due to his efforts and also to the support of Dr. Susan Kitchen. Our administrative group clicked, we had cohesion and the same goal – the welfare of the student-athletes.

1979

The Retriever men’s basketball squad – ranked number six in the nation – advances to the NCAA Division II tournament quarterfinals, losing at home to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame coach John Chaney’s Cheyney State team.

1980

UMBC men’s lacrosse team wins the university’s only national championship, beating Adelphi for the NCAA Division II crown.

GEORGE MCGEENEY ’ 82

As a defender for the men’s lacrosse team, McGeeney was a First Team All-American at UMBC in 1982. He later played for Team USA in the World Games of 1986 and 1990 and also played professional indoor lacrosse for the Baltimore Thunder of the National Lacrosse League.

Favorite Moment? I had the good fortune of graduating from UMBC and winning the William C. Schmeisser award as the top defenseman in Division 1 lacrosse on the same weekend, as well as being named captain of the South team in the North-South All Star Game. I was fortunate to have great teammates and a great coach in Dick Watts that pushed me hard to be the best player I could be.

What was special about being a UMBC student -athlete? There were no shortcuts and the ability to balance playing division one lacrosse and working toward my economics degree was challenging but very rewarding. What was most special was the faculty and staff , in particular my advisor Michael Bradley – a great teacher, person, and supporter of UMBC lacrosse and athletics.

TAMMY MCCARTHY ’87

As an All-American guard at UMBC in the mid-to-late 1980s, McCarthy was one of the university’s basketball greats, and she continues to hold university records for most points scored and scoring average, and remains second in total rebounds.

Favorite moment? Every time the ball tipped off.. so every season… every game!

Greatest achievement? Being named to the District II All American Team and continuing to hold the UMBC women’s all -time leading scorer record.

What’s special about being a UMBC student-athlete? I formed lasting friendships that I treasure today.

1993

Mike Meyer ’95, interdisciplinary studies, wins Eastern College Athletic Conference golf championship.

1995

UMBC women’s volleyball team wins the Big South conference title.

DAVID BOBB ’97

As a track and field standout at UMBC, Dave Bobb garnered more individual honors than any other Retriever athlete. He was the top American-born sprinter in the United States in 1997, Bobb is currently the university’s men’s track and field coach.

Favorite moment? When UMBC’s outdoor track was built in 1997.

Greatest achievement? When the UMBC men’s track and field program was ranked 18th in country. As far as individual achievements, I placed third in the 55 meter dash and third in the 200 meters at the 1996 NCAA Division I indoor championships.

What’s special about being a UMBC student-athlete? The friends I made when I was a student-athlete and the memories with my team are very special to me.

1998

UMBC women’s tennis wins the second of two consecutive conference championships, and qualify for their first-ever NCAA Tournament.

1999

Men’s tennis standout Oscar Lopez ’00, and M.S. ’02, mechanical engineering, becomes the first UMBC Division I athlete to garner First Team Academic All American honors.

2002

UMBC women’s lacrosse team makes its first NCAA tournament appearance.

2002

Women’s softball squad beats Liberty, 7-1, in the 2002 NCAA Tournament.

2004

Women’s track and field phenom Cleopatra Borel’ 02, interdisciplinary studies, competes in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, placing 10^th in the world in the shot put.

KELLY FIORANI MARRIOTT ’06

As a standout player in women’s lacrosse who also excelled in the classroom, Marriott is third on the all-time scoring list at UMBC. She also lettered for two seasons in women’s soccer, making her a double threat for Retriever athletics.

What was special about being a UMBC student athlete? What wasn’t special? UMBC is often overlooked as a mainstream competitor. The potential to make a name for yourself is unmatched. The student-athletes are smart and driven, and our community of athletes was tight-knit and small enough that we all knew each other and could support one another – whether it was in our sport or in the classroom. UMBC’s athletics department dedicates time to each individual and each team, and no one sport was favored over another. Athletes can get lost or fall off the map at some of the larger schools. Women’s sports are often considered less important in our nation’s leading division one programs, but that was never the case at UMBC. When I walked in to the RAC whether it be for treatment, to catch a basketball game, or to meet my coach, I always felt I was more than just a number. I was a successful, student-athlete, and people respected me for that. I am proud to have been a student at UMBC. I am proud to have been an athlete there. It’s a special place.

2004

UMBC men’s swimming team wins its first America East championship title.

2007

UMBC women’s basketball team earns its first NCAA tournament bid.

JASON GREENE ’09

The sparkplug for the UMBC men’s basketball team’s memorable run to the NCAA tournament in 2008, Greene holds school records for most games played, most minutes, and most assists. He is currently an assistant coach for the team.

Favorite moment? Being able to celebrate the 2008 Championship in the RAC with my teammates, family, and friends! A dream made into a reality. Ever since I was a kid, I envisioned myself jumping on top of a scorer’s table celebrating on our way to the NCAA Tournament. No one can ever take that moment away from us.

Greatest achievement? Walking across the stage on graduation day with my family in the stands. It was a very proud moment! As an athlete, it was being a part of history as a member of the first UMBC men’s basketball team ever to reach the NCAA Tournament. Being on a Sports Illustrated cover and in USA Today front centerfold wasn’t too bad either!

2012

Retrievers men’s soccer team advances to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the second time in two years.

2013

UMBC women’s soccer team caps a stunning reversal from last place in the conference to first place in a single season with a bid to the NCAA tournament

2014

Women’s swimming standout Emily Escobedo ’17 wins a spot in the NCAA Championships.

Biologists at UMBC were on the hunt for female songbirds. The world sat up and took notice when they found them.

By Joel N. Shurkin
Illustrations by David Plunkert

Once upon a time – 60 million years ago or so in Australia – a small, perhaps brightly feathered descendant of the recently extinct dinosaurs opened its beak and produced a melodic set of notes. And while it is impossible to know if the creature was startled by the sound it produced (more likely the change was subtle), that moment was the prelude to all bird song.

Kevin E. Omland, professor of biological science at UMBC, and Karan Odom, a doctoral student in Omland’s lab, are among the scientists taking a closer look at bird song – and reshaping the contours of received knowledge about it that dates back to Charles Darwin’s observations and beyond.

It’s a deliciously complicated problem. While scientists have known for a while that songbirds first evolved in Australia, Omland and Odom have used that fact to disprove a theory of Darwin’s and a common myth about birds: Unlike what most people think, female songbirds sing just as much as male birds do, and may also be just as colorful.

A recent paper with Odom as lead author and Omland as one of the co-authors, detailed the wide extent of female bird song, and garnered media coverage around the world, including the BBC World Service and Australian radio.

“This is not a well-studied area. They are looking at a question that has not been looked at a lot,” explains Michael Webster, a researcher at Cornell’s prestigious ornithology department.

Bird song emerged from descendants of recently-extinct dinosaurs.

Humans have been fascinated by bird song for as long as they have had ears to take it in. And for almost 200 years, theories about bird song would suggest that the proto-songbird who made that first distinctive chirp was male.

The notion of mute, dull females and gloriously colored males in part goes back to Darwin’s observation of Galapagos finches during his second voyage on the HMS Beagle. In The Origin of Species, he later wrote: “Female birds, by selecting, during thousands of generations the most melodious or beautiful males, according to their standard of beauty, might produce a marked effect.”

It was an easy assumption for Darwin to make: songbirds in his native England generally behaved that way as well. In other words, the males competed for females by trying to be the most beautiful and songful, and the females selected on that basis – sexual selection. Think of strutting male peacocks or birds of paradise doing hilariously elaborate dances, for example.

Omland, Odom and their colleagues and students say that this is an incomplete explanation. Darwin and everyone else had it wrong, and why they did so is a matter of geography, not biology.

“A lot of the research on bird songs has been done in North America and Europe,” Odom says “where you see brightly colored males and they are singing and they are singing for a short period of time because they have to breed quickly and migrate.”

In the tropics, it turns out, that isn’t true, she says. What most of temperate zone ornithology was studying was not typical of the world’s birds, particularly songbirds.

In most parts of the world, like the Amazon, the Congo, the rain forests of New Guinea, the observer cannot tell the difference in coloration between the males and females. Female birds are just as likely to sing as male birds and can defend territory just as male birds of some species do.

Omland’s research shows that bird song in fact depends on where the birds were and the kind of life the birds lead. Even birds like the orioles – with whom we live with happily in the Maryland area – have species that vary in behavior, depending upon where they are and their life style.

Odom, a Florida native, studies a species of fancy orioles called Troupials in Puerto Rico for her dissertation. Undergraduates from UMBC and the University of Puerto Rico work on another species, the Puerto Rican Oriole. Back in Maryland, Omland specializes in the Baltimore and Orchard variety of oriole.

Orioles who live in Maryland in the summer follow Darwin’s pattern. The gender rules are quite distinct. They live here for only a few months and then migrate south to Latin America before the snows come. It is easy to spot a female: She is yellow-brown and she does not sing a complex song. The males are the typically black and orange. But orioles dwelling in Puerto Rico – same genus, Icterus – have a different life style.

Ornithologists think singing is a way of declaring presence and defending territory. When you are a migratory bird, time is of the essence and the singing helps with defense.

The Maryland orioles have a time problem: They have to attract mates, reproduce and then leave before winter comes, Omland says. The males arrive first. In songbirds, it is the females that build the nests. So the males need to grab the attention of the females as quickly as possible. Their clock is ticking, so the males tend to use coloration and song to attract mates. That is the sexual selection that Darwin found in his research.

If you live a more sedentary life in the tropics, it is less crucial, or at least it plays out in a different way. Female birds in the tropics play a larger role in the competition for resources. They may even be defending mates. There also is more competition among females in the tropics.

In Troupials that Odom studies, males and females look the same, behave the same way, and males and females sound the same. Usually it is the males who do the “dawn chorus,” and the females who do most of the daytime singing.

Orioles who live in Maryland in summer follow Darwin’s pattern.

To do her research on Troupials, Odom sets up camp in a dry forest, mostly distinguished by tall grasses and cacti and sharp-leaved plants worth avoiding.

On a typical research day, Odom and her team get up at 4 a.m. and go out in the field by 5 a.m. to be ready for six hours of observation. By late morning, it’s too hot to work so the researchers go inside, rest and have lunch.

In the afternoon, they follow the birds to wherever they “want to take us” and catch some with traps. Oranges are the main lure. Orioles love oranges. The birds are sexed and then banded by gender, and then let loose unharmed. Females get pink bands, plus an aluminum one for identification.

Odom is studying how these Troupial orioles use their songs. Why are they singing? Do they have different songs? They can sing in chorus or have a “sing out,” with one bird singing, followed by another, as if they are planting stakes in the ground to delineate territory, or simply making an existential declaration, “I sing therefore I am.”

The orioles she studied have such stability and routine that she identifies them by where their nests are located. There is a “greenhouse pair,” and a “visitor center pair.” They can all be found in a 100-to-200 meter square area.

Once Omland came to visit and Odom’s camp and asked to see a particular family and she told him to stand by a certain tree and they would show up. They did.

The birds don’t migrate, and they live together for years. In those species, both males and females are colorful, and both sing. The only way scientists can tell the difference in gender is through DNA analysis. How the birds tell the difference is unknown, Omland says. Other species of orioles in the tropics are also like that.

“Both sexes in the tropics are very progressive,” Omland jokes. “Both sexes wash the dishes. Both sexes defend the territory.”

In 2009, Omland and an international group of ornithologists published a paper suggesting that the changes over time had occurred in females, at least in orioles. The difference in the genders happened because the females evolved through time. The males were always brightly colored and always sang. A remaining question for scientists is why the females changed.

Darwin’s observation on bird song drew an incomplete picture.

The question of how many species of birds have females who sing was particularly interesting. Is what UMBC researchers and other ornithologists found in Puerto Rico typical in the rest of the tropical world?

Odom and her colleagues did a massive study to find out. The results, published in Nature Communication last summer, made headlines in newspapers and magazine worldwide, including Germany, Holland, China, South Africa and Great Britain.

“Some of the reasoning for our study is that people have known for a while that songbirds came from Australasia and that in that area and just in the tropics in general, a lot of females sing,” Odom says. Birds like Australian magpies and butcherbirds sing, sometimes standing around in choruses where everybody sings.

Odom and company took the Handbook of the Birds of the World, a 16-volume set printed in Spain, covering every known living species of birds. Every section contained what ornithologists knew about that species. They also took other publications that described bird species.

In an exhaustive review of the texts, Odom and her colleagues found 323 species in which the females was either known to be able to sing or specifically not. To the surprise of most scientists, in 71 percent of these species, the females could sing, far more than anyone expected.

Then they used a phylogenetic tree, which follows genetic attributes of organisms to trace the evolution of the birds back to their common ancestors, and discovered that the common ancestor of the songbirds had female singers.

“No, it’s not rare and it’s not some recent anomaly, and is probably how songs first evolved. It turns the entire field of bird song on its head and that was really, really surprising,” Omland says. The results were not expected, he continues, but the conclusion was much clearer than they thought they would find.

Those conclusions were also a surprise to fellow ornithologists.

“That’s not anything we realized until the folks at [UMBC] did their work,” Cornell’s Webster says. “Both males and females sang. If you asked somebody a year ago about the ancestral songbird they’d say the males sang and the females didn’t. Now we know.”

Now Omland and Odom and other UMBC researchers are turning to the questions that aren’t answered by their pioneering work.

“One of the things not emphasized in our study is that for the majority of species, we still don’t know if females sing,” Omland said.

They are working on it.

We, the Hearts, have something to say. So we might as well sing it.
We have voices. Are you surprised?

— From “The Hearts’ Manifesto” by Christie Finn

On stage in the concert hall of UMBC’s Fine Arts Building last March, Christie Finn ’07, music was rehearsing Triptych of Gossips – a composition by UMBC professor of music Linda Dusman based on a poem by Serena Sue Hilsinger – with violinist and associate professor of music, Airi Yoshioka.

The two musicians ran through the witty and ebullient piece with Dusman, who sat in the audience with the score and helped the duo navigate more challenging passages.

Triptych of Gossips is a challenging and comic piece – a summoning and séance of sorts. It’s a perfect composition to showcase the talents of Finn – a soprano who’s made a name for herself not only as a singer of new work by rising composers, but also as a performer with the wit and flair to pull off challenging and theatrical performance work in highly inventive and colorful stagings.

Since graduating from UMBC, Finn has forged a career singing in the Unites States, in Germany and in the Netherlands. She is a two-time winner of an interpretation prize at the International Stockhausen Concerts and Courses, and has played at festivals and concert halls with numerous ensembles as well as giving solo recitals.

The field of new music and (especially) active collaboration with composers in which Finn works is particularly energetic and fertile at present, and the soprano is maintains several active collaborations – including her experimental music duo NOISE-BRIDGE with clarinetist Felix Behringer as well as work with Ensemble Hörwerk, a vocal ensemble for microtonal music, and the Vokal und Instrumental Labor Stuttgart, an experimental ensemble for music and theater. One also finds Finn singing in world premieres of operas – and self-described “comic book/sitcom” operas.

Watch Finn perform and you can see why she’s in such demand. The other piece Finn performed at UMBC in March – Georges Aperghis’ Récitations pour voix seule – is a physically demanding piece lasting over 40 minutes in 14 sections that stretches Finn’s voice from moments more spoken (or chattered) to dizzying ascents to high notes, with breaths, squeaks, and squeals woven in.

You can see videos of the Récitations and a delightful performance of another Aperghis’ piece “Sept Crimes de l’amour, by Finn and Behringer as NOISE-BRIDGE with a percussionist Phillip Lamprecht at Finn’s website (christiefinn.com). The latter composition (and performance) is especially visual, featuring moments in which the clarinet is played into a drum perched precariously on Finn’s head, and where Finn chomps down on an apple (and sings) while holding sheet music for Behringer to play.

Making a career as an American singer in Europe is a challenging path, and during her visit to UMBC, Finn delineated her trajectory for an eager class of music students hoping to follow in her path of making music both their life and their livelihood.

“You have to seize all of your opportunities,” Finn told the students. “Don’t be afraid of anything. You can always make it work somehow.”

Finn is also a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program and she took a Master of Music in Voice from Southern Methodist University. Part of making her advanced studies and career work, she added, was to find a job that matched up well with a career in the arts. Finn was a Linehan Artist Scholar as an undergraduate at UMBC.

In addition to her busy performing career, for instance, Finn also works as managing director of The Hampsong Foundation – a nonprofit organization that to promotes intercultural dialogue and understanding through song in many of its forms.

“You can have other jobs that feed your artistry,” Finn told the UMBC students. With music, she continued, “you’re choosing a lifestyle, not a career.”

As Finn continues to make waves, including a recent September appearance at the Resonant Bodies contemporary vocal musical festival in New York City (which received a glowing review in The New York Times), she credited her growth as an artist to a philosophy that accentuates the opportunities and successes over naysaying and setbacks.

“In music, you definitely get a lot of negative voices,” she told the class. “You have to find a way past that. My goal is to cover them with positive things.”

– Richard Byrne ’86

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III takes your questions.

Q. UMBC has made immense strides as an academic institution under your leadership, and students and alumni take great pride in those achievements. What role does athletics play at UMBC – and how can we infuse our athletics program with that same pride and school spirit?

– Tim O’Ferrall ’95, interdisciplinary studies

Athletics are exciting and enlightening. One can learn a lot playing a sport about teamwork, about leadership, about discipline, about hard work, about how to lose, and how to win.

We take great pride in viewing athletics as a part of a balanced vision for the education of our students. We think about the whole student, the whole person, and that means that every student here should be viewed as someone who is here on this campus to develop his or her ability to think well and dream about the possibilities – and also to develop the skills and values necessary to reach goals.

Our women’s soccer team is an excellent example the type of experience for which we’re striving. The team finished the 2012 season last in the America East Conference. The women took lessons from their losses, supported one another, and worked hard – led by an inspirational coach who cared about them as scholars and people, not just as athletes. In one season, they went from last to first in the conference, tying for the regular season championship and winning the tournament.

This year, both Women’s and Men’s Soccer, also the defending champions, continue to do well in conference play. It’s exciting to be doing so well in soccer as its profile as one of the leading sports in the world continues to rise. More important, I am inspired by all our coaches – across sports – who care about students and their academic performance and are teaching them valuable lessons through sports.

Whether a student at UMBC is an athlete in our Division I program, or participating in an organized club sport, or highly involved in recreation and intramural sports, they are learning how to put athletics in perspective. That is an essential part of our values. We don’t want students to believe that they’re here simply to be involved in a sport. They are also learning about the need to balance schoolwork and other responsibilities with the time necessary to do well in school.

I think it is significant that we have large numbers of UMBC student athletes who excel academically. About half of our athletes are working at the Dean’s List level, and we can point to large numbers who go one to graduate and professional schools. It’s an atmosphere – and a relationship between excellence in academics and excellence in athletics – that exists at some of the most privileged schools in the country.

We have decided as an institution to invest more money in athletics in recent years. Nancy Young, vice president for student affairs, is working with me on projects including the new Events Center that will be a home for many of our teams. We are determined to be as supportive of athletics as possible. We are also delighted that we have a great athletics director in Tim Hall, as well as a fine group of coaches.

But I do think that people would say we are different from most places in that we’ve never been overwhelmed by sports. And I mean by that we’ve always understood that academics should come first and that’s the most important principle. We stand by that. And as member of the America East conference, we’re aligned with other institutions that are academically strong and that are also believers in balance between athletics and academics at a time when some would say there is not the balance we need to see across the country.

We should take great pride in the wonderful times that a variety of our athletic teams have had over the years, and in the excitement that those who followed the teams have had watching UMBC athletes. We also know that our alumni often talk about the great times they have had participating in club sports and intramural sports on this campus.

I think our challenge is to keep telling those stories and to watch as the overall story of UMBC and its spirit evolves as we reach our 50^th anniversary in 2016 and beyond.

To send a question to President Hrabowski, visit www.umbc.edu/magazine

I’m happy to admit it. I’m a big Retriever sports fan.

There have been times when I have gone to extreme lengths to take in a UMBC men’s basketball game. I remember sitting in a Washington, D.C. hotel room back in March 2001, listening to online radio broadcasts of Northeast Conference tournament games involving the Retrievers.

That 2000-2001 men’s team was the first Retrievers men’s squad in a while that had come close the navigating the madness of pressure-packed early March basketball and snatching a bid to the men’s NCAA basketball tournament.

Sadly, the 2000-2001 team won only one game in the conference tournament before bowing out of contention. But the fire was lit. The 2001-2002 men’s hoops team came even closer to snatching a bid to the Big Dance, forging a 20-9 record and losing a 75-72 heartbreaker to Quinnipiac in that year’s Northeast Conference tournament.

It would take another six years and a switch to the America East Conference before the UMBC men’s hoops team threatened again to win their way onto one of the biggest stages in American sports.

The 2007-08 team fought to a 23-8 record on their way to the America East conference title. They had been forged in the heat of battles and growing pains to become a fiercely competitive squad. And when they beat Stony Brook and Vermont to earn a home game on ESPN for the conference title and a trip to the NCAA tournament, I knew that I had to make my way to the Retriever Activities Center and watch history in the making.

The crowd packed into the RAC that afternoon to watch UMBC play Hartford was as enthusiastic a crowd as has ever assembled on campus. And as the team broke away from Hartford midway through the second half, I was so proud to watch a generation of UMBC students finally get their chance to storm the court and dance at its center and celebrate a victory in front of the whole country.

This issue of UMBC Magazine focuses on UMBC’s impressive athletics program – both the glories of its past and an interview about the program’s present and future with athletics director Tim Hall.

Our look at the past of UMBC athletics reveals a university that’s always had successes. (And even a Division II national championship!) The university’s women’s teams have been equal partners in the program’s successes and strengths. And UMBC’s athletes have accomplished it all at a school that emphasizes the “scholar” part of “scholar-athlete.”

The notion that UMBC athletics is woven inextricably into the inclusive excellence of the university makes its successes even sweeter – and worth celebrating.

– Richard Byrne ’86

Michael Tully ’97, cinematic arts, is a professional screenwriter. Or at least he was – until last month.

Tully’s paychecks for writing his next feature, Don’t Leave Home, ran out on October 1. And if things go according to plan, he will fly to Ireland in April to start drawing a salary as director of that film – a spooky psychological thriller in the vein of David Lynch’s Lost Highway or Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now – for a full year.

Which still leaves Tully with a half-year gap in employment. He had a steady gig for several years as the chief writer/editor of the arthouse film website Hammer to Nail, but he’s given that up to devote himself full time to making movies.

“That’s the scary/fun part of filmmaking,” he says by phone from his home in Austin, Texas, where he moved from New York City in 2012 when his wife, Holly Herrick, landed a job with the Austin Film Society. “It’s always a hustle. You’ve never really arrived.”

An observer could be forgiven for believing that he has. Septien, Tully’s genre-defying feature about three troubled brothers living together on a farm, was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. IFC bought it for $80,000, allowing Tully to pay off the $15,000 in production costs he’d put on his own credit card ­– and also pay back his parents and the friends who’d kicked in – within six months of shooting.

It was a happy ending for a movie Tully made “as a sort of lark middle finger to the film industry.” Septien broke every one of the dispiriting rules Tully was hearing at film festival panel discussions: Pick an easy-to-identify genre, don’t cast yourself, don’t spend your own money, and choose a title starting with A or B so video-on-demand viewers won’t have to scroll too far down their menu.

Tully’s much warmer, yet still idiosyncratic follow-up, the semi-autobiographical ’80s-set comedy Ping Pong Summer, also played at Sundance this year. Shot on location in Ocean City for a thrifty $1 million, Tully nonetheless managed to snag an honest-to-god movie star, Susan Sarandon, for a pivotal role, one he’d written with the legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog in mind.

Tully’s pal Jay Duplass, who directed the Oscar-winning actress in Jeff Who Lives at Home, passed the script to Sarandon and vouched for Tully’s worthiness. It helped that the character, Randi Jammer, is a retired champion of pingpong, a sport close to Sarandon’s heart: She’s a partner in SPiN, a chain of pingpong clubs in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Dubai.

Tully’s first feature as director, 2006’s Cocaine Angel, didn’t come until almost a decade after he’d graduated from UMBC’s film department. His UMBC education had given him a grounding in the physical details of film production, but when it came to getting an internship or learning to navigate the financial subtleties of filmmaking, he was largely on his own. “And I liked that,” he says.

But even small movies still cost a lot of money in the late ’90s. “It wasn’t as easy as saying, ‘I’m going to get a Panasonic DVX and get my buddies and make a movie,’” Tully recalls. “Which is finally what I did when I turned 30, with Cocaine Angel. It was a lot of being insecure and not having the confidence to take the plunge.”

Learning to believe in yourself is a big theme of Ping Pong Summer, a picture Tully sums up as “an experiment in combining my own life with the movies I loved in the ’80s” – teen comedies like Better Off Dead and National Lampoon’s Vacation – “and really trying to make an artifact film that feels like a lost movie from 1985.”

Thanks to his father, Tully has an Irish passport – which makes him a native filmmaker in the eyes of the Irish Film Board (IFB), eligible not just for tax rebates but for potentially several hundred thousand dollars in production funds too.

Tully was initially wary of claiming to be an Irish artist, but a talk with a gentleman from the IFB straightened him out. “He said, ‘People have come in here with accents stranger than yours,’” Tully laughs.

Don’t Leave Home will be another step on the progression that Ping Pong Summer began, stirring Tully’s idiosyncrasies into the tropes of a beloved genre.

“More and more,” Tully says, “I’m like: ‘Can you make something that feels soulful and earnest out of a premise that is just absolute movie hokum!’” Fingers crossed, he’ll have at least a year to figure that out. And get paid for it, too.

– Chris Klimek

STRONGER STEM

UMBC’s leadership in fostering the success of students seeking degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering and math (STEM) was highlighted in October when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a groundbreaking series of awards totaling more than $18 million for the university.

The awards were part of a $240 million, five-year NIH investment to enhance diversity in the biomedical research workforce called Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (or, BUILD). Bill LaCourse, dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, and UMBC Provost Philip Rous, together serve as the award’s principal investigators and will direct the STEM BUILD@UMBC initiative.

Unlike programs that focus on supporting students at extreme ends of the achievement curve, STEM BUILD@UMBC will focus on high-potential students who are at risk for not completing their STEM degrees but who, with extra support, are likely to succeed. The university will collaborate with five community colleges, Gallaudet University, and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in this initiative, which will combine innovation with the leveraging of effective components of existing UMBC programs to create a multifaceted new student support model.

A White House College Opportunity Initiative workshop held in September at UMBC revealed a demand for well-evaluated approaches to improving STEM education nationwide, as many U.S. universities struggle with lagging retention rates and achievement gaps.

– Dinah Winnick

Chancellor John W. Dorsey (1936 – 2014)

John W. Dorsey, the third Chancellor of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, passed away in July at the age of 78. Dorsey died at his home in Laurel of respiratory failure.

Dorsey was named as UMBC Chancellor in 1977. He came to UMBC from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he had held a number of academic leadership positions in the 1970s, including Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs and Acting Chancellor (1974-1975). Dorsey served as Chancellor at UMBC until 1986, overseeing nine years in which the university boosted its enrollment and significantly raised its academic profile.

A key element in Dorsey’s legacy was the stability he brought to a university whose development after its founding in 1966 had not been without growing pains, including the resignation of the university’s second Chancellor Calvin B. T. Lee under acrimonious circumstances in 1976.

Dorsey arrived at a moment when UMBC was under the constant threat of a significant revision or even termination of its mission as a public research institution. One of Dorsey’s most notable moments as Chancellor came in 1981, when local media reported that Sheldon Knorr, the executive director of the Maryland Higher Education Commission, was preparing a proposal that UMBC be shut down and converted into an industrial park.

The reports created a firestorm on campus, and Chancellor Dorsey rallied the university community at a large public meeting held in the UMBC dining hall with a stinging rejection of the scheme – which never reached formal consideration

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, observes that Dorsey “was the protector and supporter of UMBC. When the university found itself and its future being questioned, he was the one who said we must protect this great institution because the people of the state need UMBC.”

Dorsey came to the job with an intimate knowledge of Maryland’s university system and its politics and tensions, and he usually preferred taking a quieter approach to building his lasting achievements on campus. Dorsey’s “wonderful, understated approach” was a key to his success, says Hrabowski, who adds that “it’s easy to see why the university went to the next level under his strong leadership.”

Shortly after his appointment as Chancellor, Dorsey commenced a sweeping internal reorganization of the university’s administrative and political governance which simplified and clarified UMBC’s structure and paved the way for sustainable growth. And far from shutting down or altering its core mission, UMBC’s enrollment grew steadily over Dorsey’s nine-year tenure and surged past the 6,000 mark in his last year as Chancellor.

Upon his departure from UMBC in 1986, Dorsey returned to College Park as a special assistant to President John S. Toll. He also returned to teaching economics and retired from College Park in 2001.

An alumnus of College Park with a B.S. in economics (1958), Dorsey also had a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from Harvard University.

– Richard Byrne

HONOR ROLL

Each year at Homecoming, UMBC’s Alumni Association bestows its Alumni of the Year awards to notable graduates of the university, and the select group of this year’s honorees was among the most impressive yet.

This year’s ceremony was held in the recently-opened second phase of the university’s Performing Arts and Humanities Building, and the 2014 award winners included:

Claudia Pearce ’89 M.S. and ’94 Ph.D., computer science (Engineering and Information Technology), a senior computer science authority at the NSA.

Donna Lewis ’86, English (Humanities), a cartoonist with the Washington Post News Service and Syndicate and the unit chief of the Office of Professional Responsibility, Transportation Security Administration in the Department of Homeland Security.

Michael Adelstein ’96, biochemistry and molecular biology (Natural and Mathematical Sciences), CEO of Potomac Photonics, Inc.

Kaliope Parthemos ’93, psychology (Social and Behavioral Sciences), chief of staff in the office of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Hadieh Shafie ’04 M.F.A., imaging and digital arts (Visual and Performing Arts), independent artist.

Gib Mason ’95, economics (Distinguished Service) chief operating officer and director of the Center for Leadership and Innovation, UMBC Training Centers.

Isaac Kinde ’05, biological sciences (Rising Star), M.D./Ph.D. candidate, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The Alumni Association also honored Anne Spence, professor of the practice in mechanical engineering, with the association’s inaugural Outstanding Faculty Award.

– Richard Byrne ‘86

Train a Dog to Perform Search and Rescue

Lisa Kakavas ’94, psychology, spends her days working as textbook manager in the UMBC Bookstore. At night and on weekends, however, you’ll find her out in the field with her sable German shepherd, Zildjian (or “Z” for short), working with Mason-Dixon Rescue Dogs. Kakavas is president of the all-volunteer group, which trains dogs – and their owners – to seek and find missing people, both alive and dead.

How do you transform a dog from lovable companion to hard-working rescue/recovery K9?

Step 1: FIND A TEAM TO TRAIN WITH

“There are numerous search and rescue groups around Maryland, and they are generally very open to helping newbies get started,” says Kakavas. She advises starting with a web search to identify groups that are close to where you live. You’ll likely be invited to a field day – most groups hold regular weekly sessions – and meet everyone involved in the group to see if you’re a good fit for that team. Training a rescue dog is a rigorous, long-term project, and it’s important that both the group’s location and overall zeitgeist work for you. “You’ll be spending a lot of pretty intense time with these folks,” Kakavas observes.

Step 2: LEARN FIELD SKILLS

Interestingly, the first step in training a search and rescue dog does not involve an actual canine. “You need to solidify certain skills yourself, as a handler, before you can start teaching your dog,” says Kakavas. On the learning curve: navigation with map, compass and GPS. You’ll also study search strategy – i.e., how to evaluate an area of land to devise the most effective and efficient search approach, since “when you’re looking for a live individual, time is of the essence” – and “scent theory,” or understanding how terrain, weather patterns and even vegetation affect how a search target’s scent disperses in the landscape.

This initial human training period varies, depending upon the individual’s previous outdoors experience and how much time they can devote to what is ultimately a volunteer gig. “The ballpark is about one year,” Kakavas says.

Step 3: CHOOSE YOUR DOG

Ideally, those interested in learning to do search and rescue acquire the dog after they’ve established their own skills. “This way you get to see a multitude of working dogs and start to understand what breed you’d like to work with, what makes a good search dog,” she says. Although many rescue canines come from certain working breeds like German shepherds, border collies, and Labrador retrievers, Kakavas says that any pup – so long as it is less than two years old – has potential. A dog’s particular characteristics are more important than its breed. “Look for a dog that is independent yet sociable, tractable, eager to learn, agile, and fearless,” she says. “And has a good nose!”

Step 4: EARN “THE PAYCHECK”

While a handler’s motivation is abstract – help the community, save lives, bring a loved one home to their family – dogs are motivated by food and play. Search and rescue training is built around the “paycheck” of a treat or some tug of war as a reward for performing tasks. Training a dog to certification level typically requires one to two years, when working at it part time, and involves activities like “runaways” which use the handler and a volunteer “subject” for the dog to find. “The subject runs away maybe 30 feet, which kicks in the dog’s natural prey drive even as they can still see the person,” Kakavas explains. Every time the dog goes to a subject, it is rewarded with a very vigorous playtime.  The distance gets longer and longer, until eventually the subject is out of the dog’s sight. The dog by this time understands the need to find a person in order to get their reward, thus naturally transitioning from sight to scent in order to go collect that paycheck.

“Training is essentially coupling the dog’s natural drives with a reward, over and over again until it’s deeply automatic,” says Kakavas. “Our dogs are searching for any human scent. No matter who is out there in the field, the dogs will find them, which we want: even if it’s not the missing person, it is someone who is a potential witness.”

Step 5: DON’T FORGET TO HAVE FUN

Doing searches, which can be long and grueling, must also be fun for both dog and handler. Especially the dogs: if it’s not fun, they simply won’t do it. Fortunately, says Kakavas, search and rescue is the canine equivalent of a big game of hide and seek. And the handler? “Just watching that dog do a job it is born to do, just the way you’ve trained them to do it – that is the human paycheck.”

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

1. Dog treat or toy, depending upon your dog’s preference
2. A GPS, compass, and map
3. Working knowledge of search strategy
4. Spirit of fun and adventure

By The Numbers

Amount of area searched: Anywhere from a few hundred square feet to 80 acres.

Number of years Kakavas has been training dogs and doing rescue and recovery: 14.

Furthest Kakavas has ever traveled to do a search: 3,500 miles, searching for a lost hiker in Peru.

Number of searches Kakavas and Z have done in their five years of working together: more than 50.

– Michelle Gienow

UMBC alumni work to preserve and present history for broad audiences in Maryland and beyond.

By Max Cole

UMBC’s history department is the only one in Maryland that offers a graduate track in public history. Students who take courses in public history learn that it is a unique profession that requires a unique approach to research and interpretation. Each course creates opportunities for students to engage in work on real projects with real partners, which in turn helps prepare them to enter the workforce upon graduation.

“Public history is a form of public service,” says Denise Meringolo, an associate professor of history at UMBC and director of the public history program. “Public historians help create historical understanding by sharing authority and inquiry with a variety of partners.”

“At UMBC, graduate students in public history develop a portfolio of work, produced in class and in internships that demonstrates they have a marketable set of skills, most importantly including experience in community-based public history practice.”

UMBC students who go into public history careers understand the importance of rooting their work and research in the communities they serve. They preserve and present history for broad, non-academic audiences, and they strive to relate historic objects, materials, sites and places to everyday people to make them understand their significance and value. Above all, they have an appreciation for what they do and a passion for history that often starts at a young age.

Smelling the Campfire

When Jim Bailey was seven years old, he witnessed his first historical re-enactment at New Market Battlefield in Virginia. He remembers it as the moment he decided he wanted to work in public history.

“A living historian let me try on his coat and hold his musket. I could see the camps and I could smell the campfires,” remembers Bailey. “I remember as a child just being enthralled by everything I was hearing, seeing and smelling.”

Bailey ’03, history, and ’08 M.A., historical studies, now works as a park ranger and volunteer coordinator at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. As park ranger, Bailey presents interpretive programs, serves as historic weapons supervisor, and coordinates the living history volunteer program with the Fort McHenry Guard.

As a student of history and having grown up in nearby Catonsville, Bailey understands the significance of Fort McHenry to Baltimore and American history, and each day on the job he interacts with visitors from across the globe.

“In an age when we are addicted to our smartphones and everything moves so quickly, we have visitors here that don’t necessarily understand the War of 1812, let alone the Battle of Baltimore,” Bailey observes.

“Two hundred years ago is incredibly remote,” he continues, “so how do you engage people in a meaningful way and make a connection? That’s what interpretation is all about.”

Bailey says if visitors can think of the War of 1812 and its impact on American history, he has done his job.

“When you’re walking up on the fort walls and you begin to contemplate what happened there, it’s powerful. When you start to hear fifes and drums on the parade ground, and see soldiers marching and sergeants shouting out commands and can see them drilling just as they did 200 years ago…the fort becomes alive like it wasn’t 20 minutes ago. Those are things that stay with you for the rest of your life.”

Family Ties

Many UMBC history alumni have their own personal story — something they can point back to as being a stepping-stone for where they are now.

For Robert Bennett, it started with a research paper about a historical aspect of his family he produced as a student at UMBC.

Bennett ’12, history and ancient studies, is executive director of the William Brinton 1704 Historic House in West Chester, Pa. He landed the job through his research paper on the Bennett family, in which he discovered he was descended from English Quakers who helped colonize Pennsylvania in the mid-1680s. In the course of his research, he discovered that the descendants of this family owned and operated a historic house and museum dating back to 1704 in West Chester.

Eventually, Bennett found that his seven times great grandfather built the housewith his brother-in-law in 1704.

“Whenever I come here to the house, it makes me think about my seven times great grandfather and grandmother,” says Bennett. “It’s very personal for me. When I come here, it’s like coming home.”

As executive director, Bennett cleans and maintains historic objects at the home, maintains records, organizes volunteers, presents tours and coordinates events throughout the year. In all his work, he tries to make visitors understand his strong, personal connection to the historic home with the goal of having it resonate in their own lives.

“UMBC taught me that if you can find the personal connection or the human touch in a historical document, object or artifact, then you can relate to it better,” says Bennett. “If you can relate to it, you can relate it to others in that way.”

Bringing History to Life

UMBC’s history department teaches students research, interpretation, communication and writing skills, all of which are necessary to be a successful public historian.

Allison Seyler combines all of those skills in the day-to-day work she does as a research archivist at the Maryland State Archives.

Seyler describes her job as having three tiers: data mining, research and education. Seyler ’10, history and French, and ’12 M.A., historical studies, works on the grant-funded Legacy of Slavery in Maryland project. Focusing on five counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Seyler researchers newspapers, advertisements and government records from the 19^th century to create biographical sketches or case studies on slaves, slave owners and fugitives living on the Eastern Shore.

“It’s all about these individual stories we are rediscovering,” says Seyler. “They didn’t go anywhere. These stories are there. We just have to bring light to them. We illuminate these people’s struggles and their experiences because they’re worthwhile. They have value. They’re important to the American story and the Maryland story.”

In addition to using her research and writing skills to produce case studies, Seyler presents her findings to a variety of audiences: teachers, students at all levels, and even descendants of Eastern Shore families who have lived there for centuries.

“This is the human experience,” explains Seyler. “Who is to say that’s not important?”

When the Light Bulb Goes Off

While many alumni who are now working as public historians thoroughly enjoy their jobs, it is important to understand how much of the work can be a time-consuming challenge, especially in a managerial role at a national museum.

When Alice Donahue first started working at the National ElectronicsMuseum in Linthicum, her first job was to project manage the opening of a new gallery about the introduction to concepts and principals of electronics.

“When I came in, I had to literally cut half the words [for interpretive displays],” says Donahue ’05, history, and ’08 M.A., historical studies. “When you take historiography at UMBC, you need to be able to reduce the argument of a 400-page book to one page. That skill definitely translated to exhibit writing.”

As the museum’s assistant director, Donahue manages the museum’s collection and volunteer program. She brings in new objects, organizes and cleans objects on display, and maintains mountains of paperwork on them noting where they came from and why they are important.

The museum helps people understand how electronics and communications have evolved, which makes the job worthwhile for Donahue.

“Public history is about making history that people care about. How do I pick which words people are going to care about and what about this history makes them understand themselves and their experience better?” says Donahue, describing the challenges of her job.

“When the light bulb goes off and people realize they knew more than they thought they did and the world is suddenly bigger and their role in it is bigger…it cements their place in history and that is what I really enjoy.”

It’s Not Just About the History

As demonstrated by several UMBC alumni working at International Mapping Company in Ellicott City, one doesn’t necessarily need to major in history to pursue a career in the public history field.

International Mapping creates interactive maps, applications, signage, videos andother materials to enhance the user’s experience while visiting historic sites, national parks or even studying history in the classroom.

“We specialize in displaying geographic information for people so they can better understand it,” explains Dan Przywara ’94, geography, and director of sales and marketing at the company. “It’s one thing to read a word and try to visualize what happened. It’s another thing to actually see something and be able to comprehend it from that image.”

International Mapping has worked on projects from Maine’s Acadia National Park to Harpers Ferry National Historic Park and beyond. Twelve employees of the company are UMBC alumni representing majors from geography and visual arts to computer science. While much of the work involves advanced technical skills, employees still need to have strong research, writing and analytical skills, all of which are the foundation of what goes into producing compelling public history.

“With a historical map video, I have to research historical events in order to map them properly, so it combines a lot of other skills – both technology and general research knowledge,” says Kevin Lear ’85, geography, who is senior project manager at International Mapping and recently completed a video history project on the Korean War.

“We know the skills that UMBC alumni have when they get here can transfer to our company,” explains Przywara. “With the range of skills that we require, UMBC provides that.”

People and Community

Graduates of UMBC’s public history program and other related majors are prepared to enter the workforce with a full complement of skills that will enable them to contribute to preserving and presenting history for decades to come.

Whether it’s creating digital maps, presenting re-enactments or leading tours, alumni are prepared for a variety of jobs in public history. However, there is one common thread that is taught at UMBC that carries over into the everyday work: it’s all about people and community.

“It is truly crucial for public historians to understand that the questions guiding their research and the interpretive products they produce must be rooted in the communities they serve,” says Denise Meringolo. “Otherwise, they will be insignificant and unimportant.”

The desire to serve the community is evident with public history alumni, and perhaps more powerful is the fact that many of them wish to continue giving back.

“As a graduate of the program, I thought it was so enriching and well put together, I want to stay involved in that community,” says Alice Donahue. “We want to keep giving back. We got so much from the program, and we want to continue to help the next generation to keep getting that.”

Rubin Rakovsky was an in-house auditor for a multinational accounting firm, but wasn’t happy with his job. “I was just a number there,” he says. “I wanted to feel like I was part of something.”

Rakovsky’s search for a more satisfying position led him to Elliot Lasson ’87, psychology. Lasson, the executive director of Joblink of Maryland, helped match him with a small real estate investment fund in Laurel that satisfied the young accountant’s desire to meet new people and participate in multiple aspects of the business.

“Employment is so central to who people are,” says Lasson, who moved into the leadership role at the Baltimore-based nonprofit six years ago. “[Rakovsky] was at a place in his life where he needed a change, and I was in a place I could help.”

Lasson traces his own interest in a career in human resources to his father, who was a clinical psychologist. He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, but sought to apply that curiosity about human behavior to a business environment.

As an undergraduate at UMBC, Lasson was able to meld his dual interests by concentrating his course work on organizational psychology – the scientific study of human behavior in the workplace.

“I tend to be a very focused person. I determine where I want to go and I find a path to get there. I didn’t feel I needed to turn back or second guess. I knew what I wanted,” says Lasson, who lives in Baltimore’s Mount Washington neighborhood with his wife, Sheryl.

Lasson also received a master’s degree and a doctorate in organizational psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit. He worked for private firms in Michigan and Maryland, and eventually for the state of Maryland, where he heard through some friends that Joblink was looking for a new leader.

He recalls liking how the organization – which works primarily works with members of the state’s Jewish community but is open to all – was still young and growing.

“I saw an opportunity to build something there,” says Lasson, who also earned a second bachelor’s degree in Talmudic Studies from Ner Israel College in Pikesville while attending UMBC.

Joblink has helped more than 400 people find new jobs since he took over – and has provided assistance to another 2,400 people seeking work. All of Joblink’s services are free to job applicants, employers and search firms. Lasson says that one key is to look beyond resumes and minimum job requirements, and take into account an applicant’s personality and goals, as well as the business’ culture, when matching job seekers with prospective employers.

Lasson identifies a few key elements for a successful job search. He urges job seekers to develop new skills by volunteering in a preferred field or helping with projects outside their current department. They should focus on “portable skills,” especially in computers.

“That is really critical,” says Lasson, who also serves as a member of the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board, a panel that advises the state’s executive branch on how to best address Maryland’s workforce needs. “Tech skills are a prerequisite for most jobs these days,” he says.

Lasson has also extended his vision to higher education, and has returned to UMBC to teach graduate-level psychology courses as an adjunct professor.

“He’s got a soft spot for this school it seems,” says Ted Rosen, director of UMBC’s industrial/organizational psychology master’s program. “He is really dedicated to his students and they really appreciate him.”

Lasson says it’s been especially hard to find people good jobs the past few years, “but with a little luck I can usually help. I find it very gratifying.”

There is hope that comes along with the hard work, he adds. “People should never give up,” he says. “Keep looking.”

– Scott Daugherty ’02