CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The greatest sports achievement in the University of Maryland-Baltimore County history before Friday night came in 1996. Twenty-two years before the Retrievers became the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, another Retrievers team played Cinderella by going from (nearly) worst to first.
In 1990, UMBC’s chess team finished 26th out of 27 teams at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. Six years later, after years of funding and recruiting, the Retrievers not only won the Pan-Am but placed their B team in second place in dominating fashion.