Jordan, Branch highlight Terps’ class
All-time rushing leader LaMont Jordan and former men’s basketball star Adrian Branch, as well as current Maryland women’s lacrosse coach Cathy Nelson Reese, who starred in both lacrosse and field hockey during her undergraduate years in College Park, were among nine selected for induction into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
After the announcement of their selection Thursday, the former Terps will be honored in a ceremony Nov. 2.
Along with Jordan, Branch and Reese, the others selected to the 2018 Hall of Fame class were women’s volleyball player Eden Kroeger Burks, gymnast Gillian Cote Cook, men’s soccer player Jason Garey, fencer Howard Labow, women’s lacrosse and field hockey player Karen Trudel Martellucci and men’s lacrosse player Joe Walters.
“We would like to congratulate all of this year’s inductees and their families,” athletic director Damon Evans said in a statement. “This is a tremendous class of Hall of Famers who have made an undeniable impact on Maryland athletics both on and off the field. We’re looking forward to celebrating this outstanding 2018 class and recognizing their academic and athletic achievements.”
Aside from finishing first in overall yardage with 4,147 during a career that spanned from 1997 through 2000, Jordan still holds the school’s single-season rushing record (1,632 in 1999), single-game rushing record (306 against Virginia in 1999), single-season mark for rushing touchdowns (16 in 1999) and career rushing attempts (807).
Jordan, a second-round pick of the New York Jets in 2001who played nine seasons in the NFL, also holds the school record for 100-yard rushing games (18) and overall touchdowns in a season (17 in 1999). He was selected first team All-Atlantic Coast Conference and second-team All-America as a senior during the 1999 season.
Branch is considered the most accomplished player in Maryland history not to have his jersey honored in the rafters. The 6-foot-7 shooting guard and small forward, who teamed with then sophomore Len Bias to help the Terps win the ACC tournament title as a junior in 1984, was second only to Albert King in scoring (2,017) when he left Maryland and now ranks fifth overall. He remains first overall in career minutesper game average (34).
A first-team All-ACC tournament selection as a junior and a second-team All-ACC player as a senior, Branch was a secondround pick by the Chicago Bulls in 1985, but played just three seasons with four NBA teams before playing overseas for the remainder of this pro career.
Branch made his first return to College Park in many years last season as a television analyst.
Reese has been part of 11 national championship teams at Maryland — four as a player, four as a head coach and three as an assistant. A three-time National Coach of Year (2010, 2014, 2015), Reese has produced seven Tewaaraton Award winners, 16 Tewaaraton finalists and 57 All-Americans. She was a two-time All-American and two-time All-ACC player (1997 and 1998).