Return to the 1892 season page

Despite the lack of formal games for the 1892 season, there is evidence of football being played at A&M during the 1892-1893 schoolyear. The first mention of A&M's football team in the local papers was in the schedule of the State Fair, with the schedule calling for a game between "students of A. & M. college" (News and Observer, October 15th, 1892, p. 1).

Raleigh had her first taste of intercollegiate football at the State Fair in 1888, and the sport proved popular enough that State Fair organizers tried to bring back a match for the following year. A game was planned between Wake Forest and Trinity (Duke) for the 1889 State Fair, but apparently Trinity never fully agreed to the game (News and Observer, October 18th, 1889, p. 1). Despite the reported popularity of the 1888 Fair game, football was a new sport, especially to the South, and the Fair's organizers preferred to stick with more traditional sports like horse racing or foot races. As such, there appears to have been no efforts made to schedule a State Fair football game after the 1889 game fell through until 1892 (Jim L. Sumner, p. 147).

However, football was growing in popularity in North Carolina, and as such, the Fair's organizers brought it upon themselves to bring a game to Raleigh. Though the papers advertised for a game taking place on October 21st, the students of A&M played a game the day before at 3:30 PM. Little was recorded about the specifics of the game, though it was described as "hotly contested" and a "most interesting game" with a "large audience."

Speaking to the quality of A&M's football team for the 1892 season, the Raleigh Male Academy, A&M's first formal opponent from the year before, furnished some of their players to play for A&M's "scrub" team. The captain of the 1891 team, C. B. Williams, again was noted for his spectacular play. Other players of note were Joel Whitaker and Eugene Denson, both for the amalgamated A&M-scrubs team. The umpire for the game was Charles B. Park, and the referee J. W. Bailey (The State Chronicle, October 21st, 1892, p. 4; News and Observer, October 21st, 1892, p. 1).

The umpire, Park, was a professor at A&M. From Wilmington, NC, Park came to A&M before the 1892 school year as "assistant instructor in practical mechanism" (The Wilmington Messenger, July 23rd, 1891, p. 3). Josiah William Bailey, the referee, was, at the time of the game, a student at Wake Forest. While at Wake Forest, he was an editor of their magazine, The Student. Though his relations to football are not immediately clear, he did write a scathing editorial on behalf of the Wake Forest football team towards UNC for refusing to schedule Wake Forest during the 1892 season. Robert would go on to become a senator, an attorney in Raleigh, and a noted Baptist layman. Bailey also eventually became the editor of his father's Raleigh-based paper, The Biblical Recorder (News and Observer, December 9th, 1892, p. 4; The State Chronicle, December 2nd, 1892, p. 1; John Robert Moore).

Finally, the paper notes that W. C. Riddick, A&M's chair of Mathematics and Mechanics, was the "instructor of the game" (The State Chronicle, October 29th, 1892, p. 4). Assuming A&M did not, in fact, have a coach for the Spring 1892 football season, this would add some credence to R. C. Lawrence's claim that Riddick was the first coach of A&M football, as discussed on the Spring 1892 season page. The team reportedly started official training on October 31st, following their intra-team scrimmage games at the State Fair. C. B. Williams was again elected as captain of the football team (The Evening Visitor, October 29th, 1892, p. 4).

Despite the optimism of the October 29th report, A&M's team would see no further formal action during the 1892 season. News of the team is few and far between, with A&M's young team being easily overshadowed by early rivals Trinity, Wake Forest, UNC, and inter-state games, especially against Virginia; A&M appears to have organized their team too late in the season to schedule any real games. Nothing would be heard of A&M's football team until November 10th, when an article covering Wake Forest's recent trip to Virginia wrote that "the team expects to win another victory next Saturday on their own grounds--They play the A. & M. College" (The Rocket, November 10th, 1892, p. 1).