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The Farmers got the chance to avenge their loss three weeks prior in a marquee Thanksgiving-day game against South Carolina. With the Tar Heels off playing Georgetown to a tie in Washington, DC, and Wake Forest and Trinity holding a debate in direct opposition to the violence of football, the A&M-South Carolina game was the most attractive game in North Carolina for anyone who wanted to spend their Thanksgiving watching quality college football.

The two teams were quite different in style of players and play. The A&M team "as a rule, is composed of big, strong fellows, who are well up on the game." Papers publicized the fact that the team had gotten better as the season had gone on, noting their furtunate lack of injuries throughout the year, with only Calvert, Welsh, Gardner, and Newton possibly sitting out of the game due to their injuries. South Carolina's team, on the other hand, was known to be strong. They were reported to have "some fast sprinters and hard tacklers," and had distinguished themselves to be seen by some as "the champions of the South." Though such a title was certainly sensationalized and not true, the team was a strong one (News and Observer, November 29th, 1900, p. 5; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 29th, 1900, p. 5).

South Carolina's team arrived in Raleigh on the morning of the 29th with 17 players. Local papers reported that "the farmers say they will redeem themselves today, though some of the players are in bad shape." Despite the reported injuries to Newton and the others, all four of them played (The Raleigh Times, November 29th, 1900, p. 1).

The game was seen by a crowd described as large and "fair" despite the fact that "Throughout the whole game the rain poured." The rain soaked through the field to make the ground a muddy mixture of dirt and water, and the strong northwesterly wind made the kicking difficult. With mud about an inch deep over most of the field and another portion described by South Carolina as "a veritable patch of stones," the Fair Grounds were considered "perhaps the worst [grounds] in the south." South Carolina won the toss and elected to defend the north goal.

The game started off well for A&M. Lougee booted the ball for the opening kickoff, but his kick was low and got blocked by Freeman, of the Gamecocks. Though the Garnet and Black had blocked the ball, McKinnon landed on the ball, giving the Red and White the chance to run the opening drive. Lougee started with a 2-yard run over Jennings, but after no gain on his second attempt, he attempted to punt the ball; the punt was blocked a second time, allowing Newton to get the kick 10 yards behind the A&M line. Runs by Newton for 3 and 2 yards were followed by an impressive 20-yard run by the same man between Ehrlich and Neil. Following a 4-yard buck by Gardner and a 2-yard scamper by Wright, Gardner once more gained, this time for 8 yards. On the next play, Newton was tackled by Yancey 4 yards behind the line of scrimmage; he made up the loss with a 7-yard run on the next play, bringing the ball to the South Carolina 10-yard line.

Unfortunately for the Farmers, they fumbled the ball at that point, with Yancey recovering. Reports disagree whether A&M or South Carolina was assessed the penalty, but one of the two teams was offsides. The State claims it was A&M who was offsides, bringing the ball to the South Carolina 18-yard line, while News and Observer said simply that the Gamecocks were the perpetrators. Regardless, the Garnet and Black fumbled the ball on the very next play, giving the Farmers the ball. After a 15-yard dash by Newton, Wright made a 3-yard run to score the only points of the day for the Raleigh boys. Lougee missed the goal kick, and the opening score stood 5-0 in favor of the Farmers after 14 minutes of play.

Here, descriptions of the game vary greatly, with News and Observer reporting that Yancey kicked the ball for South Carolina, with Gardner catching the kick for A&M and made a "nice run" of 25 yards before the Farmers turned the ball over on downs. The State, on the other hand, reported that Bell delivered a 50-yard kick which was returned 5 yards by an unspecified player, followed by 8 and 4 yard gains by Lougee and Gardner; at this point, the Farmers failed to gain on two downs, leading to a 25-yard punt by Lougee which was returned 6 yards by Cogburn, who had replaced Withers, who left the game at some point prior for a sprained ankle.

Reports differ once again at this point, with the Raleigh paper skipping the bulk of the plays. The Columbian paper reported Blackwell, Bell, and Yancey gaining 5 yards and a pair of 2-yard line bucks, respectively. After another 5-yard pickup by Blackwell, Deal broke off a 20-yard run before South Carolina lost half the gain on another offsides penalty. After a run by an unspecified player for 2 yards, Yancey vauled over A&M's line for a 5-yard gain, after which South Carolina was once again assessed an offsides penalty, putting South Carolina around their own 25-yard line.

Both papers report a 35-40 yard run (The State crediting Gunter with the shorter distance) on a double pass. By steady line bucks the ball is brought to about the A&M 5-yard line, where the South Carolinians turned the ball over on downs; notably, the Garnet and Black attempted to claim they were shortchanged a down. Regardless, the Farmers fumbled the ball on the very next play and Yancey recovered. Following a 3-yard run by Yancey and a 1-yard gain by Bell, the "referee got rank" -- South Carolina's words -- "and carried the ball back 10 yards." Apparently the Aggies fumbled once again, giving South Carolina the ball back. After Yancey ran for no gain, Bell gained 2, but the Columbians proved unable to gain a first down, turning the ball over at about 6-1/2 yards from the A&M goal line. After a 1-yard run by Gardner, Thompson "passe[d] the ball high", resulting in a fumble which was recovered by Deal, who picked up the ball and ran it in for a touchdown after 9 more minutes of play. Bell made "an easy touchdown" to give the Sandlappers a 6-5 lead.

Here, the two papers disagree the most on the series of events, with The State reporting no more scoring occurred; only that "The rest of the half was fast and furious, but no gains were made by either side" aside from a 30-yard dash by Bell and two more South Carolina penalties. The half was said to have ended with the ball on A&M's 20-yard line in Gamecock possession. The News and Observer, on the other hand, described the subsequent scoring drive, which matches the South Carolina paper's order of events fairly well; given the length of the drive, I'm inclined to believe that the half ended without another score, especially given the more detailed nature of The State's overall game description.

Bell kicked off for South Carolina to start the game's second 25-minute half**, sending the ball 20 yards downfield to the A&M 35-yard line. The Farmers attempted to kick, apparently losing 8 yards in the process, but recovered the gaffe. On their second attempt, Lougee punted the ball (successfully, this time) 25 yards to either Cogburn or Deal, who returned the ball 10-15 yards. Bell started things off with a 15-yard run, which was followed by a pair of runs for 4-1/2 and 4 yards by Yancey and Bell, respectively. Another run by Bell, this time for 3 yards, put the Garnet and Black within 8-1/2 yards of the A&M goal line. A two yard dash by Oliver and a 5-yard gain by Yancey inched things closer. The State wrote that Cogburn pushed the ball across the final, while News and Observer reported Oliver made the final half yard. Both agreed that Bell missed the goal. With three minutes having elapsed in the second half, the Aggies were down 5-11.

The Farmers kicked off to Jennings, who advanced the kick 20 yards. The Sandlappers fumbled the ball once, but retained possession, Bell punting 30 yards away shortly thereafter; the Farmer player was stopped in his tracks. After a 2-yard gain by an unspecified Aggie, the Red and White punted just 15 yards. South Carolina was penalized once again for either holding or being offsides, losing 10 yards. Bell made up the difference on a 20-yard run; he had "a clear way to goal when he slipped in mud" 10 yards short of the goal line. The State claims Gardner made a 3-yard gain, but probably meant Yancey, South Carolina's fullback, rather than A&M's. Here, the Farmers braced, forcing a turnover on downs. On the next play, Oliver tackled the Red and White ball carrier 6-yards behind the line of scrimmage. With the ball on A&M's 1-yard line, South Carolina was penalized yet again, bringing the ball to the 11. After a 3-yard loss by the Farmers, "[South] Carolina took it away from them" -- probably by forcing a turnover on downs. After a pair of 2 yard gains by Yancey and Bell, the ball seesawed back and forth several times until eventually Yancey lugged the ball 8-1/2 yards across the Red and White goal line. Bell made his kick to put the Gamecocks up 17-5 after either 8 or 15 minutes of play in the second half.

The final described play of the game relies on The State, News and Observer finding it sufficient to write that "The rest of the half is mainly kicking." The Columbians made sure the following play was included; it was one of the penalties they took the most issue with. The Farmers delivered a 45-yard kick to the South Carolina 10 yard line; Cogburn caught the kick and, with interference work by Jennings and Yancey, dashed 100 yards for a touchdown. Had it stood, this play would have been the longest single play for touchdown in NC A&M history. Instead, the umpire called the play back for holding.

From then on out, "nothing brilliant happened." Five Farmers were taken out of the game for injuries, with Newton in particular being carried off the field unconscious. Papers disagree where the ball even was at the end of the game, with the Raleigh paper noting A&M had the ball on South Carolina's 30 yard line, while the Columbia paper reported about the opposite: South Carolina ball at A&M's 20.

Turner and Gardner played "great ball" for the Red and White, as well as Welsh, while McKinnon's work at center was commendable; Lougee and Newton, A&M's "big halfbacks," were also celebrated for their several good runs. South Carolina's stars were Oliver, Bell, Yancey, and Cogburn, with their defensive work and double pass plays on offense taking laurels. Both teams were said to have been repeatedly injured: "At every down some man was laid out and took the limit of the time" to recover, but most came back eventually (The State, December 1st, 1900, p. 5; News and Observer, November 30th, 1900, p. 3).

Ironically mirroring the feelings of the A&M team after their game in South Carolina, the Fighting Gamecocks felt cheated by the referees. A local paper read "On a rocky field and in a cold rain Carolina defeated the Agricultural and Mechanical College of North Carolina by a score of 17 to 5. It was a good, hard fought game [sic] Carolina played a better game than usual and had both officials to play against as well" (The Watchman and Southron, December 5th, 1900, p. 2). The game report of The State even noted that the Wake Forest and Trinity (Duke) students watching the game, who had come for the interscholastic debate, switched partisanship partway through the game: "after several questionable decisions the Trinity and Wake Forest boys... [who] had heretofore been cheering for the Agricultural and Mechanical team as a matter of state pride, quickly changed to [South] Carolina." It's possible to see where some biases would have come into play, given that the referee was former coach Perrin Busbee, while the umpire was A&M textiles professor Henry M. Wilson. Both, however, had officiated several other games this fall though without notable incident.

** The State mentions that the second half "should have been 25 minutes long" without further explanation. Given the rash of injuries towards the end of the match, perhaps it was called early, but lacking the clarity of a statement to that effect, I have decided to keep the game with the previously-mentioned times.