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After the slight drama between the Quakers and the Farmers that occurred after they first tried to play, the two teams did not exactly rush to schedule a make-up game. Since their first attempted meeting, the Red and White had played only one game, losing 40-to-nothing to Chapel Hill. Guilford, on the other hand, had played two games. The first was a game against the same North Carolina team that the Red and White had lost to so succinctly. According to the Guilford Collegian, "The fact that the A. & M. College had been beaten so badly by them was an incentive to every man to beat that score." Guilford completed this mission by keeping the game a scoreless tie through the first half, but wearied and eventually gave up 16 points without scoring any themselves (The Guilford Collegian, Vol. X, No. 2 (October, 1897), pp. 46-47). The only other game the Quakers had played was a narrow 6-0 victory over the Greensboro Athletic Club. Though UNC handily defeated the Greensboro team 24-0, the Crimson of Greensboro were one of the better teams in the state of North Carolina in 1897.

At the risk of going on a slight tangent, it is worthwhile to detail briefly the record of the Greensboro Athletic Club. For starters, Greensboro's team was described by some as "one of the best in the State." Additionally, the Gate City's athletic club also played against every opponent the Red and White played, scheduling matches against Chapel Hill once, and twice against both Guilford and Oak Ridge, A&M's final opponent of the season. In addition to having a very strong and heavy team, the training of Mr. Michaux, their manager, was quite serious, with team practices reported on frequently in the paper, and Mr. Michaux's training being described verbosely as such: "The solicitude of the proverbial hen with one chick is not in a class with the same sentiments that manager lavishes on his team. Its [sic] better than the pony show to see him dancing on the warm grid-iron when a scrimmage is on" (The Wilmington Messenger, November 7th, 1897, p. 4; The Greensboro Evening Telegram, October 27th, 1897, p. 2).

Guilford's team organized on August 31st, and practiced routinely through the month of September and half the month of October before playing their first game. Though their match against Guilford had originally been scheduled for October 5th, the game was delayed, first because "a number of the players are unable to play" (The Greensboro Evening Telegram, August 31st, 1897, p. 1; The Greensboro Evening Telegram, October 5th, 1897, p. 1). The game was eventually rescheduled for October 15th, and Guilford won the game, even with a "baldy crippled" team that used four substitutes, 6 to nothing. Greensboro's team was characterized as slow and heavy. Some time after the games, the two teams took to the papers in a bitter spat, sparked by Guilford's team being forbidden by their school from playing additional games. Greensboro's team was upset that the Guilford team had rejected a second contest against Greensboro but had reportedly challenged Winston Salem's team to a game. In the bickering, it came to light that Greensboro had wanted to play using an old ball "which was stretched entirely out of shape," but that the umpire, a Mr. Sapp, had ruled the ball unfit for play (Charlotte Daily Observer, October 16th, 1897, p. 5; The Greensboro Evening Telegram, November 4th, 1897, p. 1; The Greensboro Evening Telegram, November 6th, 1897, p. 1).

Disagreements would become a frequent feature of this Greensboro team's games--at least, the close games. After losing narrowly to Guilford, the Crimson's next scheduled games were against the Tar Heels. Originally, there were expected to be two games between the teams, one on the October 12th, in Chapel Hill, and a second on the 16th, in Greensboro. At some point in the season for unclear reasons, the schedule was changed, and the game between the Tar Heels and Greensboro was put off. First, the game was pushed back to the 20th, but was canceled due to heavy rains; it was again rescheduled, this time for the 22nd. The "long delayed Greensboro game" did not get a detailed description in any of the local papers, but one was not needed. Despite the Greensboro team holding the White and Blue to just 8 points at the half, the game was "rather one-sided" in the end, becoming a game of "science and practice against untrained muscle." The Greensboro papers offered no further excuses for their loss this game (The Greensboro Evening Telegram, October 20th, 1897, p. 4; The Greensboro Evening Telegram, October 25th, 1897, p. 1; The Tar Heel, November 2nd, 1897, p. 4).

The next game scheduled by Greensboro was against the Wilmington Athletic Club. If the newspapers of the time are representative of the interest shown by the city in the sport of football, the city of Wilmington had been enraptured with the sport, especially since A&M played the first-ever "scientific" football game in the city in 1894. The city amassed at least three football teams which competed regularly: the O. A. N. team, the A. C. L. team, and the Wilmington Athletic Club's team. The the origins of the name O. A. N. escape me, but my best guess is that the abbreviation stands for the street corners on which their club's building stood: Orange, Anne, and Ninth. The O. A. N. club was a boy's club founded by Rev. Dr. Robert Strange, and included meetings for debate, historical talk, and a variety of sports, including baseball (The Wilmington Messenger, April 17th, 1897, p. 4). The A. C. L. team was a company-sponsored team of the Atlantic Coast Line railroad company. And finally, the Wilmington Athletic Club was simply an adult athletic club of the city. The O. A. N. team was by far the most dedicated team, going as far as installing four "arc electric lights" so the team could practice at night (The Wilmington Morning Star, October 14th, 1897, p. 1). Suffice it to say that the city of Wilmington took their football quite seriously, and that the game would not be a simple cake-walk.

Unfortunately for the lovers of football in Wilmington, the game between Pink and White of Wilmington was not what it was hoped to be. "The game of foot ball at Hilton Park yesterday afternoon ended in a disagreement; Greensboro refusing to concede a touch-down made by Lewis of the Wilmington team and tieing the score." To summarize the game, after ten minutes of play, Greensboro scored the first touchdown and scored their point-after goal after 10 minutes of play, making the score 6-0. According to the Wilmingtonians, Devin, of Greensboro's team, failed to declare the ball dead by shouting "down," and Lewis, for Wilmington, grabbed the ball in the confusion and ran the ball back to his own goal line. Wilmington and Greensboro papers disagree with the call of the officials, both arguing for their own case; nonetheless, Greensboro's team left the field, thus forfeiting the game. The Greensboro side seems to me to be the more doubtful one, as their summary of the game came with some libelous statements about Hilton Park not seen in other descriptions of the field. "The field was full of sand burs, where the game was played, and had a big live oak in the middle of it." The former part of the statement seems believable; the latter, not so much. Though Greensboro had the winning score, they forfeited the game by leaving the field (The Wilmington Morning Star, November 13th, 1897, p. 1; The Greensboro Evening Telegram, November 13th, 1897, p. 1).

Greensboro's next game came just four days later, on November 16th, at the grounds of a local military school, Oak Ridge. Oak Ridge lost the game 0-10, which was admirable, considering that the school boys had not played any other games that football season. The boys of Oak Ridge traveled to Greensboro a few days later, on November 20th, and this time lost 16-0. Both games were free of any controversy, though the second game did feature some excitement when a horse ran away from the Greensboro athletic grounds; reportedly, most of the crowd left the game to chase the horse (The Greensboro Evening Telegram, November 17th, 1897, p. 1;The Greensboro Evening Telegram, November 20th, 1897, p. 1).

Finally, in a game some papers labelled rather self-aggrandizingly the "State championship football game," Greensboro's athletic club played Charlotte's Y.M.C.A. team in a rematch of their 1896 game against Charlotte, which many spectators said was the best game played in Charlotte that season. Greensboro's team found cause for consternation before the game ever started. Charlotte's team had furnished a man who had not played with their team for previous games: "Pat" Spence, a former Davidson College player. Greensboro believed that he was not eligible to play the game because he was an undergraduate student at Davidson, while Charlotte claimed he was "a country school teacher." Initially, neither team would yield, but eventually the teams begrudgingly agreed to play if the game would not count for state champion status. According to the Greensboro papers, after the decision was made, Charlotte spoke negatively of Greensboro's consternation, and called the decision a "baby act." Afterwards, Charlotte reportedly tried again to sneak Spence back onto the field. According to Charlotte, 200-250 spectators left the game during the hour of debate it took to settle the dissension (The Greensboro Patriot, November 24th, 1897, p. 3; Charlotte Daily Observer, November 26th, 1897, p. 6; The Greensboro Evening Telegram, November 26th, 1897, p. 1; The Greensboro Evening Telegram, November 26th, 1897, p. 4). Greensboro's decision to not play with an undergraduate on Charlotte's team to me is odd, as the featured work of their 1896 game was the use of college students who were back on break.

Guilford's summary of the UNC game ended, "The team is to be congratulated upon its plucky spirit, but if they wish to beat the A. & M. College on the 22nd as badly as the University [of North Carolina] did on the 2nd, (40 to 0,) harder and more earnest training must be introducted." The date of publicatoin of the Guilford Collegian, October 15th, was the earliest published date I could find for the rescheduled game, the next earliest coming on October 19th. Early reports wrote that "The teams are reported to be in good condition, and a good game may be expected" (The Press-Visitor, October 19th, 1897, p. 4; The Raleigh Times, October 20th, 1897, p. 4). As alluded to in some of the preceeding paragraphs on Greensboro's team, Guilford's team was not a bad one, having held UNC scoreless for a half, and beating a solid Greensboro team despite being down four of their key players. In addition to the training given to the Guilford team by Whitaker earlier in the year, future A&M head coach and then-UNC football player John McKee, of Raleigh, went to Greensboro for three days before the game to coach Guilford's team. A&M, on the other hand, had played only one game so far, and lost handily. The result of the game was fairly predictable before the game even started (News and Observer, October 23rd, 1897, p. 5).

Though the game was originally scheduled for 4:30, the Collegian reported that the game started 10 minutes early--an unusual occurance, even in the nineteenth century.

"The farmer boys were outclassed at all points," wrote one report; another report wrote "The Guilford College foot ball team won... by superior skill" (News and Observer, October 23rd, 1897, p. 5; The Greensboro Patriot, October 27th, 1897, p. 3). Guilford won the coin toss and chose to defend the West goal, with A&M kicking off first, kicking "well into Guilford territory." Hill, for Guilford, advanced the ball to about midfield before being downed. After 7 minutes of steady gains, Hill scored a touchdown for Guilford, and Tomlinson, Guilford's captain, kicked the goal, making the score 6-0, Quakers.

A&M again kicked off, and Guilford advanced the ball "by steady gains of from 3 to 25 yards at a time." Eventually, the Crimson and Gray brought the ball to the Farmers' 25-yard line, at which point, "a hole was made in the enemy's line, through which a bale of cotton might have been rolled, and Armfield stepped off 25 yards and made a touchdown." Guilford missed the kick, and the score stood 10-0.

Here, A&M again kicked off, delivering a booming kick. The Collegian wrote that Tomlinsong got "the ball almost between our goal posts," meaning a kick of just under 50 yards had been delivered by the Farmers, evidencing that perhaps the kicker had become the most experienced position on A&M's team. The ball "went steadily eastward" by "brilliant and steady work," but the half ended before the Quakers could score again, with the ball resting on A&M's 10 yard line.

The first mention of the Farmers maintaining possession of the ball came in the second half, when A&M received Guilford's kickoff. The Red and White advanced the ball nearly 20 yards from the kickoff, but sadly "almost immediately lost it on downs." Guilford scored almost immediately on a "fast play," but the Quakers missed their third kick of the day to leave the score at 14-0.

Guilford's second possession of the second half went about the same as their first two. Though A&M "kicked off with determination," Hill, Armfield, and Petty steadily worked the ball up the field until Tomlinson again ran the ball in for a touchdown. With a small amount of time left in the game, the Crimson and Gray's kicker missed again, and the score remained 18-0.

Time was called for the game with the ball reportedly just two inches from the Farmers' goal line; "Another second and the score would have again been increased." Despite the Farmers' scoreless end, the Collegian was congratulatory of their efforts, writing "A. & M. played a plucky and spirited game" and that their defensive efforts deserved "much credit," as Guilford's team made slow work of advancing the ball down the field. As for the Farmers' lack of scoring, "small opportunity was given to judge the A. & M. team since the ball was in their possession but three times during the game." Of special mention for their work were Teisaku Sugishita and Bradley Wooten. The Quakers did fumble the ball at some point during the game, but it is not specified when. The ball was never once in Guilford territory, and Guilford never had to use their third down, which was at the time the down the ball changed possession on. The one reported "objectionable feature" of the game was "the ill-mannered tendency of the spectators to crowd upon the field" (The Guilford Collegian, Vol. X, No. 3 (November 1897), pp. 72-73). Guilford later called this game "the most successful game of the season" for them due to the "blood in their eyes" after the "severe [26-0] defeat" handed to the Quakers by the Red and White two years before (The Guilford Collegian, Vol. X, No. 4 (December, 1897), p. 99).