The 1892 Maryland Aggies football team represented the Maryland Agricultural College (now the University of Maryland) in the 1892 college football season. It was the first football team to officially represent the school. Maryland played three games, all of which it lost, and failed to score any points. Halfback Pearse "Shorty" Prough gained the only positive yardage for the team against Episcopal High School. He netted 35 yards from scrimmage after first running 30 yards in the wrong direction. It remained the only winless Maryland team until matched by the 1967 squad coached by Bob Ward.

Schedule

Season summary

Teams composed mostly of MAC students were fielded in 1890 and 1891, but the 1892 squad was the first officially sponsored by the college. Dick Pue was elected captain as the only member to return from the unofficial 1891 "varsity". The Aggies opened the season against St. John's College, which had fielded a team since 1885. The game was held on October 15 in Annapolis and attended by a large crowd. Many of the spectators had traveled to also attend the Navy–Princeton game on the same day. Maryland was overmatched in all aspects and was routed by St. John's, 50–0. On November 5, the Aggies traveled by the B&O Railroad to face Johns Hopkins at Clifton Park in Baltimore. The heavier Hopkins team scored a touchdown in the game's first 40 seconds on its way to a 62–0 victory. The Baltimore American judged Prough, Rollins, Strickler, and Worthington as Maryland's best players of the game. Maryland closed the season against Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Episcopal controlled the game and won, 16–0. Halfback Pearse "Shorty" Prough recovered an Episcopal fumble and ran in the wrong direction 30 yards before realizing his error and changing course for a net gain of 35 yards to the opponent's 15-yard line. According to later accounts from eyewitnesses described in King of American Football in 1952, it may have been the Aggies' only positive yardage of the game. Episcopal's school newspaper, the Monthly Chronicle wrote, "Runs by [Episcopal's] Prof. Mead and Conrad were followed by Whaley dropping the ball. Prough picks it up and, forgetting himself, starts off for the wrong goal. He regains his self-possession, however, in time to turn and, by a pretty piece of running, make a net gain in the end." The Chronicle added that Maryland "showed an unaccreditable ignorance of football."

Personnel

The members of the 1892 team were: Manager: