Return to the 1897 season page

Former North Carolina captain and A&M standout Joel Whitaker again enters the story of NC State football in a different setting, this time as the coach of Guilford's football team. As of early September, Guilford's team was out practicing tirelessly, and Whitaker reportedly thought that Guilford "has an excellent eleven, though a light one." Another paper wrote that it seemed as though Guilford's team worked non-stop, saying "Football seems to take all the spare time of the students at present. Every evening may be seen on the athletic field quite a number of candidates for the football team chasing the 'pigskin.'" (The Press-Visitor, September 8th, 1897, p. 1; Greensboro Evening Telegram, September 10th, 1897, p. 2).

Unfortunately, regular updates on the progress of A&M's team could not be readily found, but as the date came closer, newspapers began to comment on the coming game more frequently. By September 22nd, it was reported that "A lively interest in football is manifested by the A. & M. stu-students [sic] this year and although the material is mostly new it promises well. Guilford is reported as having a good team, hence Saturday's game promises to prove interesting." Despite the excitement leading up to the game, it was reported on the 23rd that Guilford had telegraphed in to Raleigh that they could not come on the 25th (News and Observer, September 23rd, 1897, p. 4; The Press-Visitor, September 22nd, 1897, p. 1). Guilford's team strongly denied this report, with Guilford's captain, S. H. Tomlinson, writing the following letter to the News and Observer:

"In your issue of the 24th it was stated that Guilford canceled the game of foot-ball to be played in Raleigh with the A. & M. College on Saturday last. This report is not correct. Guilford is ever ready to stand by her engagements and the students are indignant that the A. & M. College should insert any such erroneous notice in your paper. Definite arrangements and agreements were made by the managers of the two teams quite two weeks before the game was to be played. On Sept. 21st Mr. Petty, the manager for our team, wrote to the A. & M. College manager, Mr. Lemly, and asked if the game could be changed to Friday instead of Saturday, since our faculty preferred us to play the game on that day provided it was convenient for them to change. Mr. Lemly then telegraphed back for us not to come Friday or Saturday. We returned a telegram stating that we expected to play Saturday, receiving an answer that they would cancel date, also Mr. Lemly wrote a letter stating they could not play Friday and would consider the engagement canceled for Saturday.

"We will meet the A. & M. College football team on the gridiron at any open date.

"Yours very truly,

"S. H. Tomlinson"

News and Observer, September 28th, 1897, p. 2

A similar report was written in Guilford's school magazine, the Guilford Collegian, with Guilford writing "the A. and M. team canceled the game and then gave us credit for it. Guilford was ready and anxious to play" (Guilford Collegian, 1897-1898, p. 48).

If A&M offered an official response to this, or further explanation of cancellations, I have been unable to find it. It is possible that A&M canceled the game because they were unprepared for the game, and also possible that the Farmers simply realized they would likely lose the game; Whitaker was a fantastic football player in his time, and his coaching abilities should not be marginalized, even if he soon left for dentistry school up North. Guilford's team this year was much improved over the previous year: In 1896, the Tar Heels beat the Quakers in two back-to-back games by a combined score of 60-4; in 1897, Guilford only lost 16-0, though the Chapel Hill paper's mostly blamed the slim margin of victory on the Tar Heel's ineptitude, writing "for fifteen minutes the Varsity time and again caried the ball to the Guilford five yard line, to lose it on a fumble" (The Tar Heel, October 15th, 1897, p. 1).