| Year: | 1937 |
| Team: | Maryland Terrapins |
| Sport: | football |
| Conference: | Southern Conference |
| Short Conf: | SoCon |
| Record: | 8–2 |
| Conf Record: | 2–0 |
| Head Coach: | Frank Dobson |
| Hc Year: | 2nd |
| Stadium: | Byrd Stadium (original) |
| Champion: | SoCon champion |
The 1937 Maryland Terrapins football team represented the University of Maryland during the 1937 college football season as a member of the Southern Conference. The highlight of the season was a 13–0 shutout of 17th-ranked Syracuse. In the homecoming game, Charlie Weidinger completed a pass to William Bryant for a 13–7 go-ahead over Florida. The Terrapins' two losses came against Penn and Penn State, the latter being the second game in a rivalry that would bedevil Maryland throughout its entire duration. At the end of the season, Maryland was declared the Southern Conference champions, the team's first major conference title.[1]
Syracuse and nearby Cornell were among the first collegiate football teams to include African-American players as starting backfield players.[3] Wilmeth Sidat-Singh, starred for Syracuse, playing a position equivalent to modern-day quarterback.[4]
In that era, when games were played in Southern segregation states, African-American players from Northern schools were banned from the field. Because of his light complexion and name, Sidat-Singh was sometimes assumed to be a "Hindu" (as people from India were often called by Americans during this time). However. shortly before a game against Maryland, a black sportswriter, Sam Lacy, wrote an article in the Baltimore Afro-American, revealing Sidat-Singh's was African-American. Maryland refused to let him play and he was held out of the game and Syracuse lost the game 0–13.[4] In a rematch the following year at Syracuse, Sidat-Singh led the Orange to a lopsided victory (53-0) over Maryland.[5]
On Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013, the University of Maryland publicly apologized to surviving relatives at a ceremony during a football game at Syracuse.[6] [7]