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Having last played nearly two weeks ago against South Carolina in a tie game which was free from both injury and A&M's star, Arthur "Babe" Wilson, the Farmers were well-rested heading into their game against Chapel Hill. Though there had been a bevy of games mentioned or planned to varying degrees between the two dates, all of them either fell through or were canceled. One of those potential games was against Guilford in Greensboro, a game which had many dates suggested but never materialized. Two other games which fell through were matches against Georgia Tech in Atlanta on November 19th and against Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI, or Virginia Tech) in Roanoke on November 12th. Both games were mentioned in the original few versions of the schedules published in Red and White. The matchup in Atlanta was fairly firmly scheduled but was reportedly canceled by A&M "athletic authorities" around October 7th, apparently because A&M's manager was suspended and "took with him the only copy of the schedule." Such a report has not been verified elsewhere and differs from several early reports that Gardner was the team's manager; Gardner played on the team throughout the season (The Atlanta Constitution, October 7th, 1904, p. 9). But the game against VPI appears to have been much more firmly scheduled; the game and location were specified in several early editions of Virginia Tech's schedule. The game probably fell through because the UNC-A&M game had, at one point, been scheduled to take place on the same date. Similarly, though few sources discuss the second NC State-Guilford as certainly scheduled, a few do; if it was, it was almost certainly canceuled for the same reasons.

UNC, for their part, had gone just as long without playing. The White and Blue had started their season off well, winning games against Guilford (29-0), the William Bingham School of Mebane, NC (50-0), South Carolina (27-0), the Norfolk Athletic Club (41-0), and VPI (6-0) while also tying Davidson in a scoreless matchup early in the season. Their only loss was against the powerful Georgetown team on November 5th, losing 0-16.

As aluded to earlier, the game was originally not scheduled at all. Chapel Hill declined to meet A&M in 1903 in football, apparently due to a disagreement of the gate fees UNC earned for the matchup after A&M let students in using season tickets at the 1902 game in Raleigh. But more prescient in the minds of the schools' athletic committees was the disastrous end to the most recent UNC-A&M baseball game.

Earlier in 1904, the Red and White defeated UNC for the first time ever in either football or baseball, beating the Tar Heels 9-2 on April 9th in Raleigh. It was called "the prettiest game of the season" for the Farmers by local Raleigh press, and was, in the words of Red and White's sports editor, "not won by good luck or bad luck, but simply by superior stick work" (Red and White, Vol. V, No. 13 (May 1904), p. 24; Agromeck, Vol. III (1905), p. 138). Their rematch, in Chapel Hill, did not go as well, to put it simply. After being tied 2-2 in the fourth inning, Carolina had a strong fifth inning to get a 6-2 lead. In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Farmers were still down but had come closer, with the score standing 7-4 in favor of UNC. A&M had two outs, and her batter, Hadley, had a full count. Though two newspaper reports on the event differ slightly in detail, the gist of the story is that Hadley swung and missed the pitch; in the process of swinging, Haywood either hit the catcher's mitt and caused the ball to come out, or the catcher dropped the pitch, and Hadley hit the ball after the catcher dropped it, causing the ball to roll into the infield. The umpire ruled that the play resulted in a strike, which caused the Farmers to leave the field in protest, forfeiting the game.

The Tar Heels were indignant over the snubbing, reporting that it was the first time a team had ever left their baseball diamond in protest of a game. The Carolinians were especially upset since they gave the Farmers half the gate receipts for the game despite A&M not being entitled to any. Both papers said the Carolinians treated the Farmers "with every courtesy" and that the Chapel Hill seven had been playing better ball that day, but summaries of the game by A&M sources said that the umpire "manifestly continued to make decisions that cut off all chances of A. & M. winning the game." Many local papers rightly feared that the decision would further strain the two team's already-tense athletic relations, an assumption which proved correct, as the A&M team later received notice from UNC's President Edwin Alderman that the athletic relations between the two teams would be severed (News and Observer, May 3rd, 1904, p. 5; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, May 3rd, 1904, p. 3; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, August 14th, 1904, p. 13).

Organization of the game began in earnest around October 14th, when The Winston-Salem Journal printed a story about UNC's University Day celebrations. The article included a brief description of Chapel Hill's manager that year, Benjamin Lassiter, writing that he was "making every effort to arrange a game with the A. and M. College" but adding that it was "impossible to say" whether or not a game would take place. An article published in October 1904 issue of Red and White (published after the Virginia game on October 15th) chided the efforts of UNC's management for repeatedly picking dates on which the Farmers had scheduled games (The Winston-Salem Journal, October 14th, 1904, p. 1; Red and White, Vol. VI No. 2 (October 1904), p. 102).

Initial reports on the suggested dates and locations for the game varied wildly from source to source. Likely dates were variously given as October 12th, 16th, or 17th, while others wrote that the game could be played in Charlotte or Chapel Hill. As late as October 23rd, a Raleigh paper published that the game was firmly scheduled in Chapel Hill for November 12th. A&M faculty agreed to the rules proposed by UNC on October 25th, and on October 28th, representatives of both colleges agreed to play the game on Thursday, November 17th, with the game to take place in Chapel Hill (The Winston-Salem Journal, October 21st, 1904, p. 5; Charlotte Daily Observer, October 23rd, 1904, p. 5; The Winston-Salem Journal, October 26th, 1904, p. 5; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, October 23rd, 1904, p. 2; Meeting Minutes 1897-1911 (Vol. 2), North Carolina State University, Faculty Meeting Records, UA 002.004, NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center – p. 299; News and Observer, October 28th, 1904, p. 2).

The disagreement on the starting time were two-fold: UNC strongly wanted to play the game on November 16th, probably so they could get a full week of rest before their big Thanksgiving-day matchup in Richmond against the University of Virginia; A&M wanted the game on November 17th so they could get more rest after their game against VPI. It should be noted that VPI's team was historically strong, especially at home: Virginia Tech's loss to UNC at home in 1904 was only the team's 2nd ever home loss, the first coming in 1901 against UVA. Another major stumbling block in negotiations was the inclusion of Foust and Carpenter on UNC's team; A&M wanted the two Tar Heels to sit out of the game, since they joined the school after October 12th, breaking an eligibility rule suggested by UNC herself (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, October 27th, 1904, p. 5; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 2nd, 1904, p. 4). Additionally, Carpenter had already played football for five seasons at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, playing three seasons as a student, one as a graduate, and one as a faculty member from 1899 to 1903.

Though it's not exactly clear when or why the game was changed to November 16th, the change took place at some time before November 9th, and probably caused the cancelation of the A&M game in Roanoke against VPI. The game was expected to draw upwards of 4,000 spectators and to be "undoubtedly... the most interesting football event of the season" for Chapel Hill. Even when the day game was finally decided on, though, changes took place: the game was originally scheduled to take place at 3:30 but was moved to 2:30 the day before, forcing the specially-chartered Southern Railway trains carrying 400 Raleigh rooters (290 of which were A&M students--over half the student body) to Chapel Hill to leave an hour earlier than originally planned. The game did eventually start at either 2:45 or 2:55 PM, depending on reports (The Winston-Salem Journal, November 9th, 1904, p. 5; Charlotte Daily Observer, November 5th, 1904, p. 3; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 16th, 1904, p. 5).

Despite all the scheduling confusion, all parties were taking the game seriously. The Farmers had been running secret practices since at least November 11th, with freshmen sentries guarding the gates to their practice grounds, complete with (unloaded) rifles at the gates of their practice field to keep prying eyes from learning any of their new plays they hoped to test out on the Tar Heels (Herakovich, p. 6). The Chapel Hillians had spent the last week giving "special attention" to their offensive work and hoped their team would respond similarly. Perhaps the most important change, though, was that largely-unaffiliated referees would be officiating the game, preventing accidents like the mishap between the two teams in 1899. Also important was the boasting: before the game, a number of UNC players publicly boasted that they would take down the Farmers by at least two touchdowns, a slight which made the Red and White even more determined to win.

Perhaps the most famous official was umpire M. J. Thompson, former Georgetown graduate manager of athletics, who had notably reffed that year's Army-Yale and Navy-Virginia games, among others. The referee of the game was Thomas "Doggie" Trenchard, of Princeton, who had coached UNC in 1895 (and would again from 1913 to 1915) but had remained otherwise unaffiliated with either team since then (The (Kinston, NC) Daily Free Press, November 11th, 1904, p. 1; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, p. 2; The Washington (D.C.) Times, November 15th, 1904, p. 8).

A diagram of the game drawn by A&M's Prof. H. M. Wilson printed in Red and White. I combined and rearranged multiple pages of the article to make the chart a bit more reader-freindly.

The day's weather was clear and cool, with the high of the day reaching just under 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The game was composed of two 25 minute halves. The Farmers had an 8 pound advantage in average weight over the Tar Heels, but otherwise the teams were reportedly evenly matched. The attendance was huge, with estimates putting the size at around 2,000 people--reportedly the largest crowd to ever witness a game on Chapel Hill's grounds.

Reports differ on exactly what time the game started. A report in the News and Observer said that the game was called at 2:30, which was the time it was advertised to start, while The Morning Post wrote that the game was called at 2:55. A report in The Times-Dispatch of Richmond, Virginia wrote that the coin toss took place at 2:45 PM. While it's possible that the Morning Post simply made a typo, it's impossible to know which time was the correct time.

Capt. Abernathy called "heads" for the coin toss and won the toss for the Farmers, who elected to defend the west goal and to receive the kick (The Times-Dispatch, November 17th, 1904, p. 8). Roberson kicked off to start the game, kicking poorly. The ball rolled 20-25 yards and was recovered by Abernathy, who returned the kick 5 yards. On the first play of game, Sadler took the ball but, owing to an apparent mistake in signals, fumbled the ball, giving Carolina the ball on A&M's 30 yard line. Reports differ slightly on exactly what happened once UNC got the ball; either Webber or Roberson carried the ball first, going about 4-5 yards; after that, Bear carried the ball about 15 yards, breaking through the line but getting stopped by Sadler; Newton drove the ball another 4-5 yards. The last play has the most disagreement, but what appears to have happened was that either Webber or Townsend started with the ball about 10 yards from A&M's goal line and was initially stopped after a gain of just one yard, by Gardner of A&M. Despite the player's initial rebuff, the Blue and White "pulls him up and pushes him over for a touch down." The touchdown was credited to Townsend by The Tar Heel but to Webber by the News and Observer and Prof. H. M. Wilson's game chart published in Red and White. Barry then kicked the goal, putting the Tar Heels up 0-6 after between 40 seconds and 1 minute of play. The Times-Dispatch has a very different summary of this drive but given the relative agreement of other sources I've chosen to disregard it.

After the touchdown, the teams switched sides of the field (as the rules once required) and Roberson kicked off again for UNC, this time making more solid contact. His 53-yard kick was returned 10 yards by Harlan "Curley" Wilson. Because Townsend of UNC was offsides on the previous play, the kickoff had to be repeated. Roberson's second attempt went 35-40 yards, and "Curley" Wilson again returned the kick for 10 yards, but fumbled the ball, giving UNC control around the 30-35 yard line; if the events of the News and Observer match with this, Wilson potentially lost control of the ball while trying to advance the ball by kicking, but that his kick was botched, but it should be noted that the News and Observer wrote that Abernathy, rather than Wilson, returned the 45 yard kick (rather than 35 yards), and that the kick was a result of failing to gain on the following play. Either way, UNC now had the ball for the second time in prime field position owing to a Farmer fumble. A few players later, Newton fumbled the ball; A&M recovered the fumble but lost the ball before she could advance it. From there, Newton, Bear, Story, and Weber advanced the ball 16 yards to bring the ball to A&M's 10-15 yard line. On second down, the Blue and White fumbled the ball, but it was recovered by Barry for a loss of 2 yards. On third down, Jacocks stepped back to attempt a drop kick field goal (now worth 4 points instead of 5), but the ball was snapped over his head by Stewart. The errant snap was recovered "Babe" Wilson and advanced another 15 yards.

Back in possession of the ball, "Curley" and "Babe" continued doing the bulk of the work for the Farmers, with the two boys moving the ball about 15 more yards on 6 plays, bringing the ball to about midfield. After reaching third down with 3 yards to go, "Babe" decided to kick the ball; reports differ on the distance, but it was at least a 35 yard kick, delivering the ball to somewhere between UNC's 15 and 30 yard line. Roberson caught the kick but passed the ball to Jacocks as he was being tackled; Jacocks carried the ball forward 10-12 yards. On his first run, Barry attempted to throw the ball to to Newton, but sent the ball over his head; an unspecified A&M player recovered the pass on UNC's 25-35 yard line. From there, Hadley and Abernathy advanced the ball about 20 yards to roughly UNC's 20-25 yard line, at which point UNC got the ball on downs; fortunately for the Farmers, UNC immediately fumbled the ball for no loss, giving control back to A&M. Once back in control of the ball, Abernathy and the Wilson brothers took control of the game, advancing the ball 16 yards in 4 downs. "Babe" ran the ball the final yard across UNC's goal line for a touchdown, followed by a successful goal kick. Red and White, The Tar Heel, and The Times-Dispatch all agreed the kick was by T. Lykes, while the News and Observer claimed the kick was made by Sykes.

Those were the last points scored in the game. "Babe" Wilson kicked off twice for the Farmers, his first kick going over the goal line for a touchback but having to be called back due to an off-sides play. His second kick was just as good, with his second kick going 35-40 yards. A&M's kick covered was equally as dominant, stuffing UNC's return man before he could make 3 yards. UNC's drive nearly stalled after a 3 yard loss by Jacocks after a meager start to her drive, but an 18 yard dash by Newton salvaged it. After a couple more runs by Bear and Newton, the Tar Heels were short of the distance needed to gain a first down, so Jacocks punted the ball away. His first went 30 yards, but landed out of bounds; after two runs for no gain by the Wilson brothers, A. Wilson kicked the ball 30 yards back to Jacocks, who was stopped at UNC's 20 yard line. After some runs for little gain by Bear and Webber, the process was again repeated. The half ended with the ball in the hands of the Aggies around midfield.

After a ten minute intermission, the second half began. "Babe" kicked the ball off to start the half, sending the ball 52 yards towards the west end of the field; Bear advanced the ball 15 yards. From there, Newton ran about 10 yards in two plays; on the second one, an unspecified A&M player was injured, but apparently recovered and continued playing. Bear, Story, and Roberson then combined for about 13-1/2 yards on four plays. On the next play, Bear broke free for 27 yards, moving the ball to around midfield. However, on the following plays, Newton lost 1 yard and then attempted a fake kick, gaining 5-10 yards and completing one of the feature plays of the half. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, on third down Newton got the ball again and failed to make the yardage, giving the Farmers the ball around midfield.

Abernathy started off the Farmers' first drive of the half with a solid 20 yard run, but after his breakout start, the Farmers drive stalled. The Wilson brothers and Abernathy had driven the ball an additional 7-10 yards downfield. Once in possession of the ball, UNC advanced the ball 10 yards by way of a 5 yard gain by Roberson and an offsides penalty on the Farmers. After a few short gains by Bear and Roberson which just barely made the required first down distance, Barry ran around end for a 10-12 yard run on a "fake buck" where another UNC player pretended to take the ball and attempt to go straight through the line and Barry got the ball on a "delayed pass." On the play, Townsend of UNC was hurt but was able to start playing again. After a few short gains by Story, Roberson, and Webber, UNC was penalized for holding. Officially, the penalty for offensive holding was changed to be a 15 yard penalty in 1904, The Tar Heel wrote that UNC was only penalized 10 yards; Red and White wrote that the penalty was for 15 yards. After this blow to their momentum, UNC was forced to punt the ball away.

Jacocks kicked the ball 25 yards further downfield. On the kick, Webber was injured but resumed playing. After a short gain by Hadley, A. Wilson made a long 15-20 yard dash. On the next play, Abernathy gained 3 yards and UNC's Bear was injured and replaced by Winborne. "Babe" Wilson attempted to kick the ball away, but his kick was blocked by either Roberson (Tar Heel) or Story (Red and White), who broke through the line. The block meant the kick advanced the ball only 10 yards, giving the White and Blue the ball on their own 43 yard line. Roberson was hurt during the kick but resumed playing. On the first down of their drive, the Tar Heels fumbled the ball, losing 10-12 yards after Jacocks attempted to pass the ball to Newton as he ran around the left end. Barry landed on the ball, salvaging the possession. On the next play, Webber ran 10-11 yards, but was just shy of the first down yardage, so on the next play Jacocks punted the ball 30 yards downfield. With the help of a 5 yard roll, the ball was back in the hands of the Aggies, but not for long, as the possession followed basically the same format as the previous few drives. After losing 1 yard overall, "Babe" Wilson punted the ball 30 yards back into Chapel Hill territory; Jacocks advanced the kick 5 yards. UNC immediately lost possession of the ball after either Barry (Tar Heel) or Newton (Red and White) tripped Gregory.

Using Carolina's blunder, the Farmers finally started building the momentum needed to sustain a drive. H. Wilson started off the drive with two consecutive runs of 4-5 yards each, followed by a 15-20 yard gain by A. Wilson on a fake buck play which utilized a "long pass." The Farmers were somewhere between UNC's 25 and 35 yard line, and things were, according to The Tar Heel, beginning to look serious here for Carolina." UNC, however, made a huge stop, forcing A&M to lose yardage on two consecutive plays for a total loss of 6-8 yards. "Babe" then kicked the ball 20 yards to Jacocks, who fumbled but then recovered the ball at the Tar Heels' 12 or 13 yard line.

From this play, the Chapel Hillians began mounting a drive of their own, going without loss of the ball to the opposite 13 yard line. The drive was made up primarily of slow but steady gains from Newton, Roberson, Winborne, and Story, who all made runs of less than 5 yards. After 10 yards of gain in 4 plays, Barry made a long 15 yard run. Following another 5 yards in two plays, Newton drove the ball another 15 yards. On the next rush, Carolina fumbled the ball, but Jacocks recovered it. After two more plays for 7 yards (which included Newton getting injured slightly but continuing to play), Winborne tore off on a 35-40 yard dash which covered much of the field; the run was called "magnificent" by Red and White and was one of the "distinguished" plays of the second half listed by the News and Observer. With 25 seconds left to play, UNC had the ball on the 15-16 yard line. UNC got two yards closer on a rush by Story. On the next play, Newton carried the ball but failed to advance. UNC rushed to get a third snap off, but time expired just before the ball could be put in play and the game ended in a tie. According to The Tar Heel, after time was called, "An. A. & M. substitute was heard to remark, coming off the field, 'I was so God —— glad when time was up, I didn't know what to do.' " (The Tar Heel, November 16, 1904, pp. 1, 4; Red and White, Vol. VI No. 3 (Nov. 1904), pp. 148-153; News and Observer, November 18th, 1904, p. 2).

Fans of the two teams hailed the rekindling of the rivalry between the two teams, writing that the game was a huge step in sparking a friendly rivalry between the two institutions--a subject which had previously been considered "a dead issue." The officiating of the game was also greatly praised, their work being called "absolutely pefect." The captains of each team reportedly found no grounds to complain; Coach Kienholtz stated that Mr. Thompson was the best umpire he ever saw (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 17th, 1904, p. 2).

One feature of the game that was not praised was the frequent fumbling; The Tar Heel counted 11 fumbles: 7 by Carolina and 4 by A&M. Because of this, reports varied greatly on the enjoyment of the game from the opinion of spectators. The Morning Post said the game was still "the best game" several spectators had ever seen despite the fact the paper also wrote that the "feature [of the game] was fumbling."

The Morning post reported that in the first half, A&M made 8 first downs, 80 yards by running, and 101 yards by kicking, and in the second half the Farmers made 10 first downs, gained 98 yards by running, and 83 yards by kicking; that adds to 18 first downs, 178 yards by running, and 184 yards by kicking. In comparison, Carolina got 12 first downs in the first half, gained 79 yards by running, and 108 yards by kicking, and in the second half earned 18 first downs, ran 155 yards, and kicked 62 yards. That adds to 30 first downs, 234 yards of running, and 170 yards of kicking. Red and White published mostly similar numbers.

UNC fans, on the other hand, were dissatisfied with the outcome of the game. The Tar Heel lamented that "Carolina had conceded too much for the sake of getting the game," commenting disappointedly on the absence of Carpenter. Despite this, Capt. Stewart said that he was "perfectly satisfied with the work of the team" except for "about five minutes when the defense was poor."

One A&M student who wrote under the name "E. M." published the following retort in prose:

Now, U.N.C., you stay in your own back yard,
 Don't mind who A. and M. plays:
What mercy do you suppose they are going to show
 A poor little team like you?
Now play on your side of the Old North State;
 And boys, don't fake so hard.
Go out and play as much as you please,
 But stay in your own back yard.

The poem also complained that the Tar Heels faked injuries (Red and White, Vol. VI No. 3 (November 1904), p. 173).

Opinions on the top players of each team were fairly clear-cut for this game. "Babe" Wilson was described as the top player for the Cadets by The Times-Dispatch, while The Morning Post praised the work of Wilson and Gardner, as well as Abernathy, "who was in the game every second." Both papers praised more Tar Heels, with The Times-Dispatch commending the work of Newton, Jacocks, Barry, and Townsend, and The Morning Post praising the latter two players as well as Webber, Stewart, and Story (The (Richmond) Times-Dispatch, November 17th, 1904, p. 8; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 17th, 1904, p. 2).

As mentioned earlier in the game summary, nearly 400 Raleigh rooters took a specially-chartered train to Chapel Hill. On the trip back, the train stalled, partially marring the otherwise-magnificent evening and perhaps explaining why there were no reports of jubilation and excitement in the city of Raleigh the next morning. The train de-coupled from five of the cars, leaving those cars on the tracks while it took the other portion of the rooters back to Raleigh. The train returned later that night to get the rest of the cars, eventually completing the trip at eleven o'clock that night (News and Observer, November 18th, 1904, p. 2).

In the week following the game, A&M students held a meeting of the student body in Pullen Hall, a multi-use library, dining hall, assembly hall, and chapel which had opened in 1902. The student body showed great enthusiasim over the success of their football team, and several speeches were made, including speeches by Capt. Phelps (the Commandant of A&M's corps), Coach Kienholtz, and several members of the team. As a result of the speeches and the meeting, several students created banners alluding to the UNC game and hung them throughout campus (Red and White, Vol. VI No. 3 (November 1904), p. 154).