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  * Non-conference games

Flushed with the success of the previous season, A&M pursued a much more intense schedule for the 1894 football season. However, football was nearly banned at A&M following the 1893 season. Trustees of the school nearly banned the game under the grounds that extended trips and excessive practice distracting students from their studies during their December 1893 meeting, but decided to delay a decision on banning the sport until a meeting in June. Overall, though, the trustees were strongly against the sport (Charlotte Observer, December 12th, 1893, p. 3). Football did, however, have its proponents: While giving a lecture at A&M's grounds, President Winston, whose own trustees at UNC had recently voted in favor of a ban against football barring a change in rules, came out on the opposite side of the trustees, jokingly saying that fellows became trustees once they became "too big a fool to get along with his studies [quote not by Winston]" (News and Observer, February 6th, 1894, p. 1). Fortunately for the advancement of football in North Carolina, the rules of football were modified and trustees voted to allow the sport to continue.

With Joel Whitaker, now a sophomore, again acting as the captain of the football team, A&M's team began practice on September 7th with 35 students vying to make the team out of the school's 209 students. One article claimed "the A. & M. College has this year the material to make one of the best teams in the State." Another paper more accurately wrote that in a time "not far distant" games between A&M's team and UNC's team "will attract much interest and as big a crowd of any other two colleges in the state," for now, the school had "not yet developed a team strong enough to cope with those of the universities" (News and Observer, September 8th, 1894, p. 4; Evening Visitor, September 7th, 1894, p. 1; Evening Visitor, September 22nd, 1894, p. 1).

One fairly minor change to A&M's football team from the year before, other than losing the a few players, was that the school colors briefly changed from pink and blue to brown and white early in the 1894 season (The Daily Tar Heel, September 20th, 1894, p. 3). The change was met with some dissatisfaction, and after just one game the team’s colors returned to pink and blue. By September 1895, football players B. J. Wootten and C. B. Kendall petitioned the faculty to change the colors; by November 11th, the colors were chosen to be Red and White. (Beezley, pp. 8-9; UA 002-004: Faculty Meeting Records, vol. 1). That makes the 1894 team the only football team of NC State to ever wear brown and white.

There is again some confusion as to who the coach of NC A&M was for the 1894 season. NC State's 2016 Football Media Guide says that the coach was Bart Gatling, but Joel Whitaker, captain of the both the 1893 and 1894 teams up to this point, would later write that Perrin Busbee was still the coach (2016 Media Guide; Joel Whitaker, p. 155). Though Perrin Busbee did appear in the 1894-1895 Football Team Picture, the post-game article written after A&M's first game, against UNC, said the team had "not had... the advantage of a coach" (The Tar Heel, October 18th, 1894, p. 1). As such, I find it most likely that Busbee, who had obtained his license to practice law around the summer of 1894, and partnered with his father, C. M. Busbee, to form a new law firm, was too busy practicing law to take a major role in A&M's football program in its early days but stepped in to help periodically later in the season (Evening Visitor, September 29th, 1894, p. 1; The Wilmington Messenger, October 7th, 1894, p. 1).

By September 18th, the team had settled down to "hard practice" and a formal game schedule began to emerge, with a game scheduled at Chapel Hill for October 12th, and a game planned for the Tuesday of fair week between either Trinity or Wake Forest (Evening Visitor, September 18th, 1894, p. 1). By September 22nd, NC A&M senior and manager of the football team Joseph Dey had arranged games with UNC, Trinity, and Guilford, and had challenged Wake Forest but not yet heard a response (Evening Visitor, September 22nd, 1894, p. 1).

Raleigh papers focused less on the existing, arranged games and more on the lack of response from Wake Forest. By the 25th, it was announced that Dey had written to Wake Forest twice with no response. Reportedly, arrangements had been made with the fair for the game to occur, and Wake Forest needed only to "accept the challenge like true athletic men," with the game being advertised locally as a match between the "two largest colleges situated in [Wake County's] borders" (News and Observer, September 25th, 1894, p. 4). The following Saturday (the 29th), the tone of the local papers grew more dramatic, with an article highlighting how A&M had contacted Wake Forest twice with no response, adding "It is to be honed that Wake Forest has thoroughly considered the matter [of?] this, and will soon send an answer stating that she will accept A. & M. C.'s challenge" (News and Observer, September 29th, 1894, p. 4). By October 1st, though, the issue had bothered Wake Forest's faculty long enough. W. L. Poteat, Wake Forest's Chairman of Faculty, announced that Wake Forest would play no intercollegiate football for the 1894 season, instead playing games among themselves (News and Observer, October 2nd, 1894, p. 2).

Wake Forest's decision to forgo football to the season was not unique to the Baptist school; Trinity's faculty voted whether to abolish the sport at the school or not, but decided to allow students to play football "in consideration of the modified rules" as long as the matches were played in North Carolina (News and Observer, September 8th, 1894, p. 1). As discussed in the 1893 season's article, the nascent sport of football was facing mounting criticism among North Carolinians for being too violent, drawing students away from their studies, being immoral, encouraging gambling, and causing a litany of other moral issues. In spite of this, NC A&M's football program progressed.

The 1894 season was a season of growth for the Farmers; they retained a number of their best players from the 1893 season, including Mosely, Vick, and Whitaker. They did lose some former stars, though, including Pritchett and MacRae. Though Pritchett continued to work as an instructor at the A&M, he did not play with the football team. The most major loss, however, was the that of MacRae, star quarterback for the A&M team; he transferred to UNC, where he played as fullback.