Scarbath was born in Baltimore, Maryland on August 12, 1930 and attended high school at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.[1] He played football as a quarterback and basketball as a guard.[2] At Poly, Scarbath came to the attention of former Maryland coach and then university president Harry C. Byrd, who offered him a full athletic scholarship.[1]
College career[]
As a freshman at the University of Maryland, Scarbath poured cement as a construction worker in the building of the school's Byrd Stadium. He later worked at a foundry, which also helped to keep him in shape for football.[3]
In 1952, he was unanimously selected to the All-America first team and finished as the runner-up in votes for the Heisman Trophy.[1][4] Scarbath was also Southern Conference Player of the Year and the South's Most Valuable Player in the North–South Shrine Game.[1] He played lacrosse for Maryland during the 1952 season.[5] Scarbath graduated from Maryland in 1954 with an industrial engineering degree.[3]
Scarbath served as an assistant coach for the University of South Carolina. He later founded and served as the chief executive officer of his own business, John C. Scarbath and Sons abrasives company, which he sold in 1995. He then worked with the Maryland Education Foundation to provide college scholarships to prospective scholar-athletes. Scarbath is married to wife Marilyn, a former Maryland cheerleader.[3]
The College Football Hall of Fame inducted Scarbath in 1983,[1] and the University of Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame inducted him in 1984.[7]
