NC State Football - 1892 (Fall)

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Date Opponent Ranking Location Result Attendence Time Length Event Comments
10/20/1892 A&M Scrubs and Raleigh Male Academy * - Fair Grounds - Raleigh, NC W, 8 - 4 3:30 PM North Carolina State Fair Exhibition game
10/21/1892 A&M Scrubs and Raleigh Male Academy * - Fair Grounds - Raleigh, NC 1:30 PM North Carolina State Fair Unconfirmed
11/12/1892 at Wake Forest * - Athletic Field - Wake Forest, NC N/A N/A N/A WF claimed win by forfeit

  * Non-conference games


Members of the 1892 Football Team

Player Position Year Hometown Notes
Pearson, Charles Junior Saluda, NC Manager
Williams, Charles Burgess Senior Camden Co., NC Captain

Official histories of NC State athletics have little to say about the 1892 football season, with one history even saying we didn't have a football team (Joel Whitaker, p.154). Another review, written 3 years later, says that A&M had a team, but scheduled mostly games with local "prep" schools, winning all of them, and then finishing off the season with losses to UNC's scrub team and Wake Forest, and a tie game against Trinity (Duke) (C. D. Harris, p. 175). Touchdown, Wolfpack! summarizes the 1892 season in less than a sentence, saying "A&M organized a team and scheduled three games" (Douglas Herakovich, p. 2). William Beezley gave the most detailed description of the season, writing "The schedule included games against nearby prep schools, and for the first time, scrimmages with second teams--the scrubs--at Wake Forest, the University of North Carolina, and Trinity." He goes on to add that "[C. D.] Harris, an 1897 graduate, remembered that the team defeated the prep schools, then got 'beaten to a frazzle by the Carolina and Wake Forest scrubs' but did manage a tie with Trinity's second team." The team blamed their losses on a lack of proper equipment, and subsequently petitioned and received $50 (about $1,400 in 2019) for funding (Beezley, p. 3).

Unfortunately, beyond these facts, the reviews give no other specific details of the 1892 season. More than likely, if A&M played any games at all, they were, like many of the games of the 1891 season, unofficial, and not widely reported. Further evidencing this claim is the fact that two summaries of college football in North Carolina covering the 1892 season failed to mention A&M at all. One article tracked North Carolina's college football teams from 1889 through the 1892 season; the other focused only on the 1892 season of Southern football teams (The Tar Heel, September 25th, 1893, p. 3; University Magazine, 1892, pp. 129-130). Neither article even mentioning A&M football in passing suggests strongly that A&M played no official intercollegiate games.

All in all, organized football at A&M took a step back in the 1892 season, playing no formal games, though the challenge by Wake Forest, however dubious, did serve as some outside recognition of the program. Of the two known members of the football team, only Charles would return for the 1893 season.

Last updated: 3/14/2024