Bill Nelson, men's basketball coach at Johns Hopkins, and Brett Adams, director of athletics and men's basketball coach at Stevenson, came up with the idea for the champiosnhip more than 10 years ago. The plan was to model the tournament after the very successful 40-year old J.P. Morgan Chase Scholarship Basketball Tournament in Rochester, New York.

The tournament combined collegiate athletic competition, community involvement and academic scholarship and recognition. Nelson had been a participant of the "Chase" tournament during his tenure at Nazareth College in the late 70's and early 80's.

 Adams and Nelson felt that the state of Maryland presented a unique opportunity, due to the ideal number of Division III men's teams. The fact that there were eight teams in the state, made it possible to play a three-day tournament an d ultimately crown a "Division III state champion."

Even though there was significant interest over a decade earlier, the group put the tournament on hold because of conference scheduling concerns. Five years later, while flying to the NCAA Division I Final Four, Nelson and Adams decided to forge ahead and initiate the tournament under the Pride of Maryland moniker.

At the time, Hood had begun a men's basketball program and there were now nine teams in the state. A spot in the tournament was offered to each school and the interest, while lukewarm at first, quickly turned into THE tournament to be in.

The tournament opened as a "tip-off" in 2005 and after three days and 12 games, the Pride of Maryland tournament had its first champion in Villa Julie, now Stevenson. Interestingly, Villa Julie and Johns Hopkins played for the inaugural championship with the Mustangs prevailing 81-78 in a thrilling overtime game.

With such positive response, the tournament continued for three years from 2006-08 as the Provident Pride of Maryland Championship with Provident Bank as the title sponsor. After M&T Bank's acquisition of Provident, in 2009 the tournament was the Pride of Maryland Championship presented by M&T Bank.