Harry Clifton "Curley" Byrd (February 12, 1889 – October 2, 1970) was an American university administrator, educator, athlete, coach, and politician.

In graduate school at Georgetown University, he became one of football's early users of the newly legalized forward pass, and he had a brief baseball career including one season as pitcher for the San Francisco Seals.

Byrd was a proponent of a "separate but equal" status of racial segregation in his roles as both university administrator and political candidate.

[3][4] On September 28, 2015, University of Maryland President Wallace Loh appointed a task force to develop viewpoints and options.

[7] In his youth, Byrd worked in the Chesapeake Bay fishing industry, where he saved most of his money to finance his college education.

He had a startlingly handsome face, with big, flashing eyes, a splotch of florid red on each cheek, and a mane of black curly hair ...

[11] After sitting out the first three games, Nielsen sent Byrd in as a substitute against Navy, and his play was impressive enough to earn a position on the first team.

After the elder Byrd read of his son's newfound stardom in the newspaper, he wrote, "Since you're going to play football, I'm glad to see you're doing it well.

In a time before eligibility limitations, he played football at George Washington and Georgetown and ran track at Western Maryland.

[10] At Georgetown in 1909, he was called the first quarterback in the East to master the forward pass, several years before Gus Dorais of Notre Dame did so in 1913.

[8] In 1910, the Chicago White Sox signed Byrd, but he was soon traded to the San Francisco Seals,[8] a semi-professional Pacific Coast League baseball team for whom he pitched in 1912.

[7] In 1911, injuries claimed enough Maryland Agricultural football players that the team could no longer field a practice squad to scrimmage against.

[17] The college turned to Byrd, who was serving as coach at Western High School in Georgetown, and he was willing to help his alma mater with scrimmages.

[19] According to author David Ungrady in Tales from the Maryland Terrapins, the university initially offered Byrd $300 to coach football, but he demanded $1,200.

[17] As football coach, he developed a unique offensive scheme called the "Byrd system", which combined elements of the single-wing and double-wing formations.

[7] The school budget was increased and the campus expanded largely due to Byrd's deft political maneuvering in Annapolis and Washington.

"[25] For years, Byrd refused to release the university's financial records to state legislators,[26] and how exactly he secured funding for many of his projects was largely a mystery.

[27] According to booster Jack Heise, Byrd financed a new basketball arena through the out-of-state tuition, paid by the federal government, for Maryland high school graduates who attended the university on the G.I.

[30] Byrd acceded to McKeldin and secured approval from the board for both the Princess Anne expansions as well as a sizable increase to the university budget.

[37] In 1950, seven schools, called the "Sinful Seven"—Virginia, Maryland, VMI, Virginia Tech, The Citadel, Boston College, and Villanova—admitted they were in violation of the code.

[37] Maryland was the only Sinful Seven school that was also a major football power with eighty scholarship players, and Byrd led them in their stand against the Sanity Code.

[38] University of Virginia president Colgate Darden called the code hypocritical, and The Citadel's leadership refused to "lie to stay in the association" and requested termination of its NCAA membership.

The coach thought the threatened sanctions, which prevented Maryland from playing any Southern Conference games the following season, would severely disadvantage his team.

[41] Dictator, president, athletic director, football coach, comptroller, chief lobbyist and glamour boy supreme ... Curley is the most-hated and most-beloved man in Maryland.

[42] Opponents in The Baltimore Sun alleged that Byrd emphasized athletics over academics and belittled him as the only college football coach to rise to the position of university president.

He narrowly beat perennial candidate George P. Mahoney in the Democratic primary by 50.64% to 49.37% and faced Republican incumbent McKeldin in the general election.

[45] Byrd ignored Tawes' warning to "stay away from private planting" by promoting the formation of leasing cooperatives, but his plan failed due to opposition in the Maryland General Assembly.