Terrapin Club Spotlight: Philip B. Bass Memorial Endowed Scholarship

Sports, memories, and family traditions are what keep the Bass family coming back to the University of Maryland. It also led them to establish a student-athlete scholarship fund in honor of their late family member, Philip Bass.

Philip (‘82) stayed connected to his alma mater after graduating as a long-time Terrapin Club member and football and basketball season ticket holder. He channeled his Maryland pride into bringing his family together by organizing trips to attend games. His sons Michael Bass (‘12), Eric Bass (‘15), Ryan Bass, Parker Yablon (‘18) and daughter Colby Yablon remember frequent family trips to College Park. The Terps brought the family closer, and the core memories from their respective childhoods stick with them to this day.

“[Maryland’s] almost like a second home,” Eric said. “It’s somewhere where we’re all just so comfortable and have so many memories.”

Colby shared a similar sentiment. “On Saturdays, we went down for almost every home Maryland football game, and we went for almost every home basketball game,” she added. “It was part of our family culture and family dynamic.”

Michael agreed. “Some of my earliest memories from childhood are going to games with him,” he said. “Maryland Athletics was just a huge part of his life.”

“I always appreciated the games,” Parker noted. “Not just because of our passion for Maryland sports. It was because we could all be together, even when I was a student at Maryland.”

Ryan recalls attending the classic Maryland basketball rivalries against Duke and North Carolina as a family. They often traveled to Greensboro where the ACC championships were held. He also remembers the 2004 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. where Maryland football crushed West Virginia 41-7.

Even when Philip’s five children grew up and began starting families of their own, he made sure to keep the tradition alive and instill the same Maryland pride in his grandkids, as noted by his daughter-in-law Colleen Bass (‘14).

“Last year, Philip took all of us and our son, and we got to go on the field at a [Maryland] football game,” Colleen said. “[Our son] thought he was at Disney World. It was the best day of his life to be on the field with the real football players.”

When Philip passed away unexpectedly over the summer, his family couldn’t think of a better way to honor him than by establishing a Maryland scholarship in his name. The Philip B. Bass Memorial Endowed Scholarship for Intercollegiate Athletics provides merit-based scholarships for undergraduate student-athletes in the Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Ryan says the decision to honor him with a scholarship at the school was a no-brainer.

“I can't speak to his love for the school enough,” he said. “He loved the school so much that he always said, ‘At my funeral when they're rolling the casket away, I want you guys to play the Maryland Fight Song.’ And we did that.”

Philip’s widow, Paige Bass, saw it as a way to remember her husband. “I'm so happy that there was something we could do,” she said. “This was a way for us to memorialize him and keep his memory alive.”

Hopes of continuing Philip’s generosity also played a major role in the family’s decision to endow the scholarship.

“One thing that I always really admired about Philip is that he used his resources to make sure that the people he loved were getting to do incredible things,” Colleen said. “That was having the season tickets and doing things like getting to go on the field. He always made sure that we were included, and that our friends were included. And we just want to keep that going.”

Michael says his father often expressed the importance of giving back to each of his children. Philip had a memorable experience as a student at the University of Maryland. He passed those experiences down to his children and their families. Now, Philip can provide experiences to countless other student-athletes and their families. After Philip tragically passed away, the Bass family sought to continue the tradition he started.  

“We wondered what to do with the season tickets,” Michael said. But it was a no-brainer for [us] to keep continuing. We’re not just buying these tickets for us, but it’s also giving back to the university that’s given so much to us.”

Given the family’s deep-rooted connection to the university, the Basses explained how significant it is to have a scholarship in Philip’s honor.

“To know that someone 20 years from now could be receiving a scholarship because of Philip and his legacy, it's so special,” Colleen said.

“It means everything,” Eric added. “Especially considering how much we love the University of Maryland and how much higher education meant to my dad.”

“Philip was somebody who always rooted for the underdog,” Paige said. “What he believed in was that if someone has the talent or wants to go to the University of Maryland, but just can’t seem to do it because they don’t have the money, [the scholarship] would be a great way for that to happen.”

Colby noted that after some of Philip’s children recently ran the D.C. half-marathon together and were looking to celebrate, they decided to make the drive to R.J. Bentley’s in downtown College Park. The siblings claimed the back corner table they’d sat at their whole lives, before countless Maryland sporting events. For the Bass family and their friends, Philip and Maryland are forever connected.

“When I’m on campus, I feel like I’m visiting him,” Colleen said. “I think that’s probably the same for a lot of people who knew him.”

Parker described recent reflections about the importance of Maryland in Philip’s life.

“I’ve tried to nitpick why Philip and our family had such a love for the university,” he said. “I think because it was a place where we could all be together through [the Terps’] highest and lowest moments. That is something we’ll always be grateful for, and we’ll continue to live that legacy. That all comes from Philip.”