In his nine years as coach at the gridiron-conscious University of Maryland, Big Jim Tatum saw his Terrapins cover themselves with glory: they won 71 games, lost only 13, played five bowl games. It was only natural, therefore, to expect that when Big Jim announced that he had accepted a $15,000 coaching job at the University of North Carolina, Maryland should be plunged in gloom. But the gloom was hardly universal—nor was there cheering at Chapel Hill. At both places, it seemed, students were showing distinct signs of growing up. Said Maryland's undergraduate Diamondback :
"We do not feel his leaving means the end of the University of Maryland. Rather it may be a second beginning. It may mean a pause in athletics which will give us time to develop more of the academic fundamentals for which the university exists." The Tatum era "was an era in which an inadequate stadium became ultra-adequate ... It was an era in which those academic programs common to other universities were called off at Maryland due to lack of student interest. It was an era in which our accreditation was partially threatened because of an overemphasis on athletic scholarships."
Roared North Carolina's Tar Heel on Tatum's imminent arrival: "Now that we have this parasitic monster of open professionalism in our midst, let's not hold on to any delusions about it. Let's not think that it will fail to dye the whole fabric of athletics at the university. Let's not think either that it will fail to take its toll on the academic health of the school. Let's not believe that Jim Tatum . . . will play the game any more for the old college try here than he did at Maryland. He will play to win and win alone."