COLLEGE PARK -- Jack Heise's final letter arrived in Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen's office on Wednesday, two days after Mr. Heise's death.
Mr. Friedgen fought back his emotions as he read it, hardly believing that Mr. Heise - a longtime Terrapins benefactor, alumnus and devout fan known as "Mr. Maryland" - would no longer be around to pen the upbeat, handwritten letters that had arrived faithfully every week for the nine seasons Mr. Friedgen has been coach.
"Keep this winning up with a big win against the Deacons. Play hard, good luck - Jack," the last letter said.
Men's basketball coach Gary Williams, who received similar notes, believed that Mr. Heise, one of the top donors to Maryland athletics and a courtside-seat holder, wrote the messages to try to keep coaches optimistic, particularly after wrenching losses.
"He'd say things to pump you up," Mr. Williams said. "It's like he was trying to get you ready for the next game. Jack was with you, win or lose."
The Baltimore-born Mr. Heise, a semiretired Bethesda attorney, was 84 when he collapsed and died Monday night of a cranial hemorrhage after driving home from a dinner honoring Marvin Perry, a fellow Terrapins booster who died in 2006.
"I'm not sure all the kids today really know who he [Mr. Heise] is," Mr. Friedgen said. "I'm going to put his initials on our helmets for the rest of the season."
For decades, Mr. Heise had been as much a staple of Maryland athletics as Testudo, the turtle mascot. Mr. Heise, who graduated from the school in 1947 and married a former Terrapins cheerleader, worshipped all things Maryland. He had attended almost every football and men's basketball game, home and away, for more than 60 years. The school said he missed only three Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball tournaments since 1946. And that wasn't all.
"It would be nothing for him to hit three different sports in one day. He felt terrible if he couldn't support every single team," said Johnny Holliday, the Terrapins' radio broadcaster.
Mr. Heise missed Maryland's opening football game on Sept. 5 at California. "He made a point of saying to me, 'I can't go there because that's my [60th] wedding anniversary,' " Mr. Holliday said. "I said, 'Jack, you've got to take care of that one or you won't be going to any more games at all.' But I can't remember any other games that he missed."
