---
title: "Still Cool, 100 Years Later"
date: 2024-05-17T15:41:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/still-cool-100-years-later"
section: Articles
---
# Still Cool, 100 Years Later

*May 17, 2024* — by [Karen Shih ’09](/authors/karen-shih-09)


> Look Back on the Maryland Dairy’s Funky Flavors and Coach-Inspired Creations

*Dairy employee pours hot fudge on sundae*

First, let’s mooove beyond the misconception that the [University of Maryland’s Dairy](https://dining.umd.edu/catering/maryland-dairy) ice cream is made from the milk of campus cows. (Only two remain on the [farm](https://ansc.umd.edu/about/campus-farm/), anyway.)

That was true a century ago, when cattle grazed in the fields and barns along Baltimore Avenue, just steps from where their milk was churned into frozen delights. And it remained so until the 1960s, when the expensive and labor-intensive process was bid out and the university switched to a commercial mix.


*students order ice cream at counter — Students order Dairy favorites like sundaes, milkshakes and ice cream at Turner Hall (then known as Shriver Laboratory) in 1964.*


*Wendell Arbuckle measures ice cream ingredients — Professor Wendell Arbuckle, known as “Mr. Ice Cream,” measures ingredients for ice cream in an undated photo*


---


*ice cream scoops with stats: 24 flavors, 10,000+ gallons created each year, 14% butterfat (higher than the 10% standard)*


**MOST POPULAR FLAVORS** 1. Cookies and cream  
2\. Sapienza (named for the former executive assistant to three presidents, Sapienza Barone ’77)  
3\. (Tie) Cookie dough and mint chip

**EVERYTHING FROM SCRATCH** “Nothing comes out of a can,” says Russo. “If I’m doing caramelized pecans, I roast them, I sugar them, I salt them. Brownie chunks? Those don’t come out of a box.” Three to four staff members surround the ice cream machine to add nuts and candy at just the right times to keep them from getting pulverized.

**ICE CREAM ANYWHERE, ANYTIME** Terps don’t have to head to the Stamp to get their favorite variety. On campus, units can order mobile ice cream carts to get hand-dipped cups or pre-scooped options (popularized during the pandemic). Nostalgic alums can order half-gallons to be shipped anywhere in the United States by emailing <marylanddairy@umd.edu>.

**BUSIEST TIMES National History Day Competition (June):** Between World War I and Olympic trivia, nearly 3,000 middle schoolers and families from all 50 states and around the world fuel up on frozen delights. “The line is there all day, every day that week!” says Robertson.

**Maryland Day (April):** The team creates a unique flavor each year for UMD’s open house.

**Early Fall Semester:** A bevy of welcome events, new Terps’ discovery of Dairy ice cream and everyone else’s renewed access to it require Russo’s crew to make fresh batches five days a week.

**SWEET, SWEET VICTORY** Starting with former football coach Ralph Friedgen in the early 2000s, the Dairy has created specialty flavors for some of the Terps’ winningest leaders (including university presidents). Men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard’s is based on his fandom for peanut butter and jelly, while women’s lacrosse coach Cathy Reese appropriately added Reese’s Cups and Pieces. Nibbling the first iteration of her flavor, she quickly caught on: “So if I keep changing something, I’ll get another tasting every week?”

**CELEBRATORY FLAVORS** The Dairy team regularly makes custom ice cream for UMD units and clubs—Campus Squirrel Crunch, anyone?—as well as special celebrations:

**Chesapeake Wild Berry Ripple** (for Maryland’s 350th anniversary in 1984): featuring three kinds of berries available when the first Europeans arrived. “It was kind of a pain to produce, but we kept it up for a year, and legislators kept asking us to bring it back,” says LaPanne.

**Star-spangled Explosion** (for the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812): strawberry ice cream spiked with sherry and swirled with red, white and blue sprinkles and milk chocolate malted (cannon) balls.




**Issue:** [Spring 2024](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/spring-2024)


**Types:** [Campus Life](https://terp.umd.edu/category/campus-life)