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Catching Up With . . .
Mark Manges, Maryland quarterback
October 4, 1976
Posted: Tue August 25, 1998
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(Walter Iooss Jr. )
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He still
has Maryland football in his blood, and on fall Saturdays
when the Terrapins are playing at Byrd Stadium, you can
find Mark Manges in
section 208,
row G,
seat 2. Not that you won't hear him first. The 42-year-old
Manges is the most vociferous supporter on the club level,
cheering with the same passion that fueled his play as a
tackle-busting quarterback for Maryland from 1974 to
'77.
Manges grew up in a football family in a football town,
Cumberland, Md. Though he was recruited by the national
powers, he went to Maryland with the hope of lifting it to
prominence. He did just that as a junior, in 1976. The
Terrapins became more
popular in the state that year than crab cakes, winning their
first 11 games to earn the No. 6 ranking
before losing to Houston 30-21 in the Cotton Bowl.
"The support came out of
nowhere, and it was everywhere," recalls Manges.
"Getting to experience that was the reason I chose
Maryland."
The
6'3", 220-pound
Manges passed for 1,145 yards in '76 on only 139 attempts. He
rushed for 448 yards and blasted holes that
helped his running backs gain many more. "We ran the
sprint option, and we were
a tough, ball-control team,"
he says. "Coach [Jerry]
Claiborne had a simple rule for his quarterbacks: If you can't
block, you can't
play."
(Mitchell Layton)
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Because of a broken right hand Manges missed half the 1977
season, in which the Terrapins went 8-4. He lasted one year
in the NFL as a backup with the
St. Louis Cardinals and then worked a variety of sales jobs
until an old rival hired him in 1989. Former Syracuse
quarterback Bill Hurley had just started the Collegiate
Scouting Network, a national service that helps high school
athletes get college
scholarships and financial aid packages. For nine years Manges has
canvassed Maryland and Northern Virginia for the network.
"I love that I'm helping kids and able to stay in
sports," says Manges. "I worked with 125 kids in
Maryland last year, and now all of
them are playing their sport in
college."
Manges lives in Laurel, Md., with his wife, Janie. While
he's easygoing most of the time, once he takes his seat at
Byrd Stadium, it's as if he's taking snaps again. "I'd
call the way I act during the game 'controlled
aggression,'" Manges says. "Sometimes I get a little worked
up, but I'm just trying to be as supportive as I can."
—B.J.
Schecter
Issue date: August 31, 1998
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
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