A trip originally scheduled for New Hampshire got canceled the week before, leading to this cobbled together sports venture. This part of Maryland is great as there are so many options, especially if you are a college basketball junkie. Within a 20 minute drive is Morgan State, Coppin State, Loyola and Towson. But first, we start with some football and a rare D3 school on The List. Historic Homewood Field sits on the campus of Johns Hopkins University as this 8,500-seat stadium dates back to 1906. Before the game, I stopped at the Homewood House, the biggest waste of $12 ever. A failed self-guided audio tour and a peak at a handful of rooms was 15 minutes better spent elsewhere. I then strolled the pretty campus while trying so hard to refrain from saying this out loud to amuse myself. I got to the stadium quite early and it was very weird getting into this place as connecting buildings made for only corner entrances and difficult exterior photos. Good news is that it was a free game! Hopkins only charges for lacrosse, the much more popular sport at the school (and they move up to DI for it). Football isn’t too shabby here either and the Blue Jays came into the season finale undefeated. Comically, they were playing winless McDaniel and the result was predictable. A 58-7 drubbing meant the Blue Jays took another Centennial Conference crown. Let’s see how far they can go in the playoffs next week. The stadium is simple but with some really steep stands and the combo of sunset and that pretty powder blue made for a scenic setting.
Just like everything in life, the prices of hotels have gone up ridiculously. An Airbnb isn’t that much of a bargain either unless you are sharing a place with other strangers, which isn’t my thing. I don’t want to sacrifice quality, but for the first time, I stayed at a motel. Because the Express Inn in Towson had decent Google reviews, I saved over $100 and had a clean, but very basic place to sleep. Everything kinda lined up for it.
The next day, I went back to North Baltimore, this time to Morgan State University for a Noon basketball game. The arena is on the south end of this small, pleasant campus and I put up with a chill in the air to make a morning walk around. It was very impressive as a pedestrian bridge splits up Morgan State with one side having brick, historical buildings and the other side featuring sleek modern structures. Inside Hill Field House was a step back in time as I saw payphones, lockers and old chair designs. Yet, I love that team blue/orange color combination and the inside of the gym reflected that well. Wandering the facility before the game, I chatted with a few folks who were all helpful and friendly as they got ready for the event. I remember the days when it was rare for a DI school to play a DIII one, but it is now quite common as non-conference scheduling in basketball is atrocious. Give the Bears credit though because unlike many other low-major schools, they were able to get 3 DI home games in the non-conference part of the schedule. Along with Longwood and nearby UMBC, James Madison will be making a visit to Hill Field House. What a grab for the Bears that is looking better by the day and I’m happy they were able to make that happen. This wasn’t one of the DI games though as the Wilkes-Barre branch of Penn State was making a visit. I wasn’t expecting a big crowd as just a few hundred folks were there at the start of the game. However, this was a doubleheader as the Women were playing at 2 PM against Sacred Heart and as the Men’s game was wrapping up, the crowd was at least 4 times the original size. The Bears played down to their opponents as it felt like they thought a 36-29 halftime lead was enough. As they slept through the second half, it wasn’t until Wilkes-Barre tied it at 50 with 7:30 to play did the Bears wake up. They went on a 14-0 run to put the game away. Walking the sidelines for Morgan State was Kevin Broadus, a name I’d never thought I’d see coach again after the debacle at Binghamton.
After, I had a little time to kill as I went back to Towson, so I stopped at the Hampton National Historic Site. Interesting, well-decorated house, it’s just that the tour was too long for the amount of space you see (lots of talking in each room). It was free and passed the time before an early dinner in the center of town at Towson Tavern. Campus is 5 minutes away and the arena is right next to Johnny Unitas Stadium, which I visited in 2017. Long known as SECU Arena, the naming rights expired and the school is shopping for new ones, hence why the branding still remained on the arena as the season opened up. They were taking on Robert Morris for the home opener and that’s a good matchup I was happy to see. The Tigers were 8.5 point favorites and I thought their bigs were going to be too much. They weren’t (Charles Thompson finished with 14) and the Colonials played them tough, eventually going ahead late in the second half. We were primed for a great finish. With the game tied at 60 with under a minute to go, Christian May followed his own miss and put the Tigers up 2. An empty RMU possession followed and Towson took care of business at the line as they won 66 – 62.
I was nervous this game wouldn’t happen because as I was touring the arena, I noticed something lying on the floor. It was the rim. Yup, the rim as a dunk during warm-ups took it clean off the backboard. Credit the Towson staff, who brought the apparatus back for repairs. Just before the ball was going to tip, something was a little wonky with the backboard and I had that nervous feeling as 5 people were standing looking at it with the refs. Thankfully it was nothing a socket wrench couldn’t take care of and after a 15-minute delay, the game got started. As for this arena, it is spectacular. The interior design has everything I would want and it is stunning. What a fantastic place for a basketball game. Too bad the atmosphere and food didn’t match up as Towson has some real potential.
Detailed reviews on each stadium experience can be found by following the menus at the top or side of the website.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
