11/19/1900 - Georgia

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In mid-October, "Probably the most notable contest on the gridiron in the South this Fall" was organized between the University of Georgia and the University of North Carolina to be played on November 17th in Raleigh, at the Fair Grounds. Though Georgia and North Carolina had been playing for many years, each of the previous contests had been held in Atlanta. The record of the two teams going in to the game was 4-1 in favor of the Tar Heels since their first meeting in 1895, with their 1898 meeting being a blowout that resulted in a 53-0 score in favor of the Blue and White of Carolina. Though early ads for the match advertised that Georgia was one of the "three great factors in the Southern football world" (the other two being North Carolina and Virginia), their recent records had been a little more lackluster, with an 1899 season that ended with a 2-3-1 record. Though the 1899 Bulldogs held Carolina to 0-5 in 1899, their 1900 season took a quick nosedive. After beating Georgia Tech 12-0 to open the season and South Carolina 5-0, the Georgians lost to Sewanee 6-21 and then Clemson 5-39 before they traveled to Raleigh (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, October 17th, 1900, p. 5).


A photo of Georgia's team from Pandora Vol. XIV (1901), p. 154

Though Clemson's 1900 team was strong, going 6-0 through the season and and winning their games by an average margin of over 35 points per game, the Red and Black were not the team they had been advertised to be. The teams played on Saturday, November 17th, before a crowd of 800, including 120 UNC students and 50 people from Durham, in addition to students from A&M and the local female colleges, Peace and St. Mary's. The match was described as "too one-sided to arouse much enthusiasm." The score reflected that fact. The White and Blue won the game 55-0, despite the fact that the Georgians were reported to be in "good condition." UNC scored within the first two minutes of play and never took longer than six minutes; the game was called "a genuine walk-over from the start" (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 18th, 1900, p. 5; The Tar Heel, November 21st, 1900, p. 1; The Atlanta Constitution, November 18th, 1900, p. 9).

Despite their recent losses, the Farmers were still adamant that they coud earn their first recognized win of the season. "They are not discouraged by their defeats," wrote the Morning Post, "but they are training harder than ever, and expect to give Georgia an interesting game." Noting recent changes in the A&M lineup, papers noted that the game would be "interesting" and that the two teams were "much more evenly matched" than the two teams that had played the previous Saturday (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 16th, 1900, p. 7; News and Observer, November 18th, 1900, p. 6).


Roster

A&M Georgia
McKinnon RE Baxter or McCutcheon*
Wright RT Gordon
Culvert RG Swanson or Putnam*
Grimsley C Hirsch
Bowden LG Putnam or Swanson*
Turner LT Monk
McCanless LE Ridley
Thompson QB Dorsey
Welsh RHB McCutcheon or Lamar*
Newton LHB Dickerson
Gardner FB Shannon
SUB Lamar
SUB Hewlett

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, p. 155

*Most likely, Swanson was RG, Putnam was LG, and Baxter was RE. McCutcheon normally played LHB and Lamar normally played QB; unfortunately, neither was mentioned in any description of the game, so who played where will remain a mystery.


Period Time Description NCSU UGA
1st 15 UGA - Dorsey - unk yd Run (UNKNOWN kick failed) unk plays, unk yards, TOP unk 0 5
2nd 6 NCSU - Welch - 1 yd Run (Welch kick) unk plays, 95 yards, TOP ~9 6 5

NCSU Opponent
Rushing TDs Welch (1) Dorsey (1)
Passing TDs N/A prior to 1906 N/A prior to 1906
Receiving TDs N/A prior to 1906 N/A prior to 1906
Defensive TDs none none
PATs Welch (1/1) UNKNOWN (0/1)
2PT: N/A/ prior to 1958 N/A/ prior to 1958
FGs none none
Safety: none none
Game Notes:
Kick Off Time: 3:30 PM - 11/19/1900 - Georgia
Length: 50 (25 / 25) - Duration: unk
Attendance: unknown
Location: Fair Grounds - Raleigh, NC
Temperature: ???
Weather: ???
Wind: ???

The game, played in two 25-minute halves, was reportedly very close throughout. Georgia won the toss and chose to defend the south goal, letting A&M kick off. "Then began a quarter of an hour of hard fighting, first toward one goal and then toward the other," though Georgia's school paper, The Red and Black, claimed that "Georgia started off with a rush that at first carried every thing before it, and went through A. & M.'s line at will," but went on to write that fumbles were frequent and that "playing let up." Eventually, Dorsey, of Georgia, made a touchdown. Georgia missed the goal and the score remained 0-5 in favor of the Black and Red. No surviving description of the game detailed any more information about the remaining 10 minutes of the first half.

Given that the Georgians received a kick to start the first half, the Farmers would have received a kick to start the second half. Reportedly, "The second half was much like the first half," and as the game drew to a close, the Raleigh faithful began to lose hope. With about ten minutes of playing time left, "a number of spectators" of the crowd (described as "very small" to begin with) had already left, "believing the game had been won." Starting on their own 15-yard line, "the farmers took the brace of their lives." The Red and White drove the ball up the field "utilizing their main strength" with a series of line plunges. "At the 50 yard line their hopes grew stronger and their gains became correspondingly larger." At that point, the crowd, which had previously "maintained a funeral-like stillness, came forward to the side lines with loud and lusty words of encouragement." At that point, the Red and White were consistently making 4-6 yard gains with every carry, while the Bulldogs "showed signs of weakening."

After slowly working the ball up the length of the field, the Farmers were at the 1 yard line. Georgia stopped two consecutive attempts to bring the ball across the goal line. "The Georgia forces brightened while desperation circles every A. & M. countenance." On their third and final down, A&M handed the ball to Welsh, who went for the left end of the line. A Georgia player tackled him, but he was pushed by two other Farmers across the goal line to make the touchdown after 19 minutes of play in the second half. The score was tied 5-5. On the year, A&M had made two and missed two goal kicks. The only known person to miss a kick to this point in the season was Lougee, in the Guilford game; he was not playing in this game. With the game resting, Welsh made the goal kick to put the Farmers in the lead, 6-5, with just six minutes of play left. "This goal kick set A. and M. students wild with joy, for they saw in it victory" (News and Observer, November 20th, 1900, p. 2; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 20th, 1900, p. 5).

Georgia spent the final minutes of the game "in a desperate effort... to regain her fallen fortunes." Though the Black and Red did successfully make two 25-yard runs, their efforts were otherwise unsuccessful.

The features of the game were reportedly "the line plunging" of Newton and Gardner, the tackling of McCanless, Welsh, and Thompson, and, curiously, "McKinnon's center work." Bowden also reportedly played well for the Farmers. As for Georgia, "the little quarterback," Dorsey, was their star, as well as their fullback, Shannon, "but they could not be depended upon in a pinch." The Georgia line was also reportedly weak. The sole aspect of Georgia's playing described favorably by the Raleigh papers was her trick plays, at which she "excelled." The Black and Red wrote that the best playing on the Georgia team came from Putnam and Ridley.

Though The Black and Red tried to claim that their team should have won "by a score of something like 20 to 0," but did not elaborate on why, writing "the 'Varsity did not play anything like the game she should have played." Regardless of the cause of Georgia's breakdown, the game was still described by the News and Observer as "far more interesting" that UNC's game the previous Saturday.

Despite those claims, the game was recognized by most parties as awful. Even The Red and Black wrote "The game was a very poor one from the foot ball stand point." The Morning Post said "Save for the last ten minutes, the game, which was characterized by the worst kind of playing, failed to develop much interest," and went on to add "The game was hardly creditable from the scientific standpoint in football." The Atlanta Journal, in a snippet reprinted in the News and Observer, perhaps best summarized the feelings of football enthusiasts, writing that the game was "the poorest exhibition of the kind ever seen on a Southern gridiron." The Journal went on: "It was without excitement or features, merely slow and stupid. Fumbles, errors of judgement and lack of team play characterized both sides so that despite the close score no one was able to scare up any enthusiasm." The Journal closed by saying "North Carolinians are beginning to think the team is about the easiest that has happened along through the State this year" (The Black and Red, November 27th, 1900, p. 1; News and Observer, November 22nd, 1900, p. 5).

The final game of Georgia's 1900 season was a 0-44 creaming at the hands of Auburn on Thanksgiving Day. Though the Bulldog team was down, there was at least some official explanation for their down year in 1900. Pandora, Georgia's yearbook for the 1900-1901 school year, explained their season as follows: "The cause of these [losses] is the fact that Georgia has for the past few years nourished an unhealthy and thriftless custom of having hired men on her teams. This had grown to be so very degrading that all saw at once the necessity of an immediate correction. To this change we attribute our lack of victories. But we can promise to the athletic world a team in the season to come that will show the grit of Georgia as it really exists" (Pandora, 1901, p. 155).

Last updated: 6/4/2024