HBCU Football History: A powerhouse rises out of Maryland
HBCU football at Maryland Eastern Shore remains one of the enduring "what if" questions in Black college sports. But to understand why the school no longer has a program, you have to go back more than a century to when football first took root on the Eastern Shore.
Long before the school became the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, it was known more simply as Princess Anne. That was the name people around the region used for the institution and for its football team, which played as the Trojans.
The program's roots stretch back to 1924, when football became part of campus life on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Those early years were not especially fruitful. Princess Anne played in a much different era, when the school was still evolving academically and athletically, and wins were hard to come by.
In the early 1930s, Princess Anne joined the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Association, or M3A, alongside regional rivals like Delaware State, Bordentown and Cheyney. But the Trojans were more survivor than power in those years, and the program continued to struggle after that league dissolved in 1939.
Then came World War II.
Like many colleges, Princess Anne saw football interrupted by the war, and that break created a clear divide between the program's early struggles and what came next. When football returned, so did a new vision for the institution.
Maryland State became a HBCU power and pro football factory
That new vision started at the top. John Taylor Williams, a former Langston football All-American, took over as president and brought with him an ambition to build both the school and its athletic program. In 1947, Princess Anne posted an undefeated season, a sign that something was beginning to change.
By 1948, the HBCU had a new name - Maryland State College - and Williams made the hire that would transform its football future. He brought in Vernon "Skip" McCain from Tennessee State, a former Langston star himself.
McCain was more than a football coach. He became the architect of Maryland State's football identity. He served as athletic director, head basketball coach and football coach, and under his watch the school stopped looking like an outpost and started looking like a destination.
UMES rise did not happen inside the comfort of a conference race.
For much of its climb, Maryland State operated as an independent, which meant it had to prove itself week after week against whoever was willing to line up. McCain's teams played some of the best HBCU competition in the country and built a reputation by beating them. They also stepped across racial lines and took on white colleges during an era when that still carried real significance. In 1948 it defeated three white schools: Albright, Glassboro (Rowan College) and Bridgeport (CT).
It showed how ambitious the program had become. Maryland State was no longer just trying to fit into Black college football. It was testing itself against a wider world.
Skip McCain turned Maryland State into a destination
That confidence became a hallmark of the program.
McCain recruited to Princess Anne and then Maryland State as if geography did not matter. Others saw a small, isolated campus on the Eastern Shore. He saw possibility. Over time, his teams turned that belief into results.
Maryland State became one of the most respected independent powers in Black college football, strong enough that it routinely beat CIAA opponents before it was even admitted into the conference. That success did not go unnoticed.
In the early 1950s, Afro-American sports editor Sam Lacy criticized the CIAA for failing to recognize what was happening on the Eastern Shore. Maryland State, he argued, was growing too strong to ignore. By then, McCain was building exactly the kind of program that forced the old guard to pay attention.
The CIAA finally did.
Maryland State joined the conference in 1954, and that move gave formal recognition to what had already become clear on the field. The school was no longer a struggling former Trojan outfit trying to find its place. It was a legitimate football force.
The independent years had hardened it. CIAA membership gave it a platform. It responded with three CIAA titles in its first seven seasons.
Maryland State became a CIAA power and pro football factory
From there, the rise only grew.
McCain turned Maryland State into a dominant program and a pro football factory. His teams won at an elite rate, winning 106 games against just 21 losses and six ties. The talent pipeline that flowed out of Princess Anne became impossible to miss. From the late 1950s into the 1970s, the school produced player after player who reached pro football.
Names like Johnny Sample, Emerson Boozer, Roger Brown and Art Shell helped cement the school's legacy well beyond the Shore.
That is why Maryland Eastern Shore football still carries so much emotional weight.
The program did not emerge from nowhere, and it did not become meaningful by accident. It began in 1924 in modest form and struggled through the Princess Anne years. It survived conference instability and wartime interruption. Then it was reshaped by new leadership, elevated by Skip McCain, and hardened as an independent willing to play anyone. Even white schools.
By the time Maryland State entered the CIAA, it had already become one of the strongest programs in Black college football
That was the rise. The fall would come later, when the financial and structural realities of sustaining that kind of success in a changing era caught up with the program. But that is Part II.
The post HBCU Football History: A powerhouse rises out of Maryland appeared first on HBCU Gameday.
Copyright HBCU Gameday 2012-2026
This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 10:13 AM.