University of Maryland Athletics
Helping
Hands
A permanent glass installation marking the 25th anniversary of Maryland’s 2002 Men’s Basketball National Championship — built by the hands of the people who lived it.
Claim Your Panel Request Information
The Opportunity
Twenty-five years later, the championship becomes something you can touch.
In 2002, Maryland cut down the nets. A quarter century on, Maryland Athletics is marking that season not with a banner or a video board tribute, but with a permanent work of art — and a limited invitation to help build it.
Thirty families, alumni, and supporters will each create a nine-tile panel of cast yellow-gold glass. Every panel is made by hand, in a working studio, by the people whose name goes on it. The finished panels are mounted together on the XFINITY Center concourse as a single, growing field of Maryland gold.
This is not memorabilia. It is a piece of the building.
When the thirty panels are claimed, the program closes. There is no second edition and no reprint. What goes on that wall is what these thirty groups make.
The Experience
A day in the studio. With a coach who was there.
Participants work at the Washington Glass School in Mt. Rainier, Maryland — a nationally recognized studio thirty minutes from campus. You are not watching someone else make your panel. You are casting it.
Coach Gary Williams joins the studio sessions, connecting each group directly to the season being honored. For most families, that afternoon is the piece they talk about long after the glass is on the wall.
Claim
Reserve your panel and we schedule your studio date.
Design
Choose what your tiles carry — hands, a memory, a name, a tradition.
Cast
Make the work yourself, guided by the studio’s artists.
Install
We finish, mount, and place it permanently at XFINITY Center.
Ways to Participate
Three ways in. One wall.
Every option puts glass you made inside XFINITY Center. The difference is scale — and how much of the wall is yours.
Helping Hands Panel
- One cast glass tile, made by you
- Studio session at Washington Glass School
- Keep it, or place it in the installation
- Recognition on the donor plaque if placed
Legacy Pair
- Keep one. Leave one for Maryland.
- Two cast glass tiles from the same session
- One goes home. One goes on the wall — permanently.
- Recognition on the XFINITY Center donor plaque
Family Panel
- A full nine-tile panel, 3 x 3 feet
- Private studio session for your group
- Coach Gary Williams joins your session
- Named permanently on the donor plaque
- Limited to 30 — ever
Places are held in the order they are requested. A member of the Maryland Sport Properties team confirms every reservation personally.
Reserve Your Place
Thirty panels. First claimed, first placed.
Tell us which you would like and we will be in touch to confirm your studio date and arrange payment. Nothing is charged here.
The Installation
Permanent. Public. Growing.
Completed panels are professionally mounted on the XFINITY Center concourse as one continuous field of yellow-gold glass. Individual tiles are grouped in sets of nine so that every contribution — whether a single tile or a full family panel — reads as part of the same work.
A recognition plaque identifies every participating family and supporter. Recruits will walk past it. So will your grandchildren.
Behind the Program
Made by people with Maryland in their history.
Maryland Athletics
Program approval, donor stewardship, recognition, and placement within XFINITY Center.
Washington Glass School
Studio experiences and fabrication in Mt. Rainier, Maryland. Director Tim Tate is a 1976 University of Maryland graduate — fifty years a Terp.
Habatat Galleries
Founded 1971 and widely regarded as the foremost gallery devoted to contemporary glass. Curatorial direction and collector network.
Questions
Talk to us before you decide.
Every participant in this program is spoken with personally. If you would like to understand the studio experience, discuss group arrangements, or arrange payment by wire or check, contact us directly.
Panels are reserved in the order they are claimed.
Helping Hands · A 25th Anniversary Initiative of University of Maryland Athletics
In partnership with Washington Glass School and Habatat Galleries