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  * Non-conference games

  * Non-conference games

The 1904 season looked to continue building on the burgeoning athletic success started by Arthur Devlin in 1902-1903. Instrumental in continuing this success was hiring another professional, skilled coach, rather than simply a former student or player, to replace Devlin, who left the school in late December 1903 after being hired as a professional baseball player by the New York Giants. Though at the time of Devlin's leaving it was initially expected that Princeton fullback Roscoe P. McClave would replace him as football coach, McClave instead was hired by Bowdoin College of Brunswick, Maine, where he remained until 1909 (The Boston Daily Globe, Jaunary 15th, 1904, p. 5; Bowdoin College Football History).

Instrumental in bringing a qualified head coach to Raleigh was soon-to-be-graduate manager of the team, O. Max Gardner. Gardner, who had been on A&M's football team since 1900 and captained the team in 1902, was by the start of the 1904 season working for A&M as an instructor in inorganic chemistry in addition to his playing on the football team and his fervent backing of the athletic association. In late 1903, the Board of Trustees had agreed to collect the college's first athletic fees in January 1904 with a fee of one dollar per student for "gymnastic and bathroom purposes." This fee earned the athletic association $500 (about $14,500 in 2019). Gardner, recognizing that these new facilities would also require a new trainer, led a student committee before the Board of Trustees to request an additional $500 from the school's general fund in order to hire an instructor to lead students in physical training; the students and the athletic association would match that request, if it was approved. Gardner's proposal was approved, and with this money A&M hired her "first regular high price big college coach" in the school's history (Beezley, p. 14; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, December 5th, 1903, p. 6; Red and White, Vol. XII No. 4 (December 1910), p. 179).

To fill this role was Dr. William "Willis" Kienholz. Kienholz had played football at the University of Minnesota from 1898-1899, then worked as an assistant coach at his alma mater in 1902. In 1902, Kienholz got his first job as a head coach, working at Lombard College, a college sponsored by the Universalist Church which was open in Galesburg, Illinois from 1852-1930. Under Kienholz's leadership, the Olive and Green of Lombard went from a 6-4-3 record primarily against local club teams and other small colleges (such as the Gem City Business College, Keokuk Medical College, and the Princeton Athletic Association) to a 5-3 record against primarily college teams, including the University of Chigao, Northwestern, and Illinois, those schools representing her only losses. Kienholz arrived at A&M on August 25th, and began working with the roughly 30 prospective football players on the 31st. Kienholz was remembered a year later as "largely instrumental in placing [A&M] where it stands today in football" (Lombard - Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, August 25th, 1904, p. 5; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, September 1st, 1904, p. 7; Red and White, Vol. VI No. 1 (September 1904), p. 41; (Greensboro) Daily Industrial News, February 27th, 1906, p. 3).

Kienholz found assistance through 1904 in the form of both a likely and unlikely ally. Former A&M and UNC player Dr. Joel Whitaker remained a constant advocate for A&M's football team and helped coach the team for several months. The Farmers were also assisted by UNC's captain and highly-touted guard of 1903, G. L. "Bully" Jones. Jones's assistance was said to be "of great assistance" in conditioning the Aggies's line (News and Observer, November 5th, 1904, p. 5).

Despite the decision to hire a professional football coach, there was some reason for concern at the onset of the 1904 season. For starters, few of the previous year's starters were returning to play, many having graduated or left school for other reasons which will be generally touched on later. Despite this, several of the better players, including Gardner, Abernathy, Darden, and Gregory, did return, in addition to many of the team's subs and most of the scrub team. Additionally, Kienholz brought with him to Raleigh the Wilson brothers (Arthur "Babe" and Harlan "Curley"). These two halfbacks quickly proved to be two of the best players on the team and frequently received praise in local papers for their work at each game (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, September 1st, 1904, p. 7). Additionally, there were fewer students to choose from: while the school had over 520 students for the 1903-1904 academic year, the administration decided to limit the student body to 450 for 1904-1905 to avoid some of the previous year's overcrowding issues--this despite the fact that school estimated that it had accomodations for only 300 students (The North Carolinian, September 29th, 1904, p. 8; Board of Agriculture in Control of North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, June 1901-December 1906, Minutes, North Carolina State University, Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, UA 001.001, NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center – p. 139).

One reason that many Seniors were absent from the team, at least at the beginning of the season, was because of what President George T. Winston called the "Thug Movement." You can read more about this event at the Thug Movement page.

Despite the lack of returning starters and the crisis among the Senior class, there were high hopes for the football team. A pre-season article by O. Max Gardner published in several local papers cried that A&M would begin "a new era in football" owing to her "competent coach from the west" who planned to "introduce a hitherto unknown system in a southern college, the western style, which has been so eminently successful." The Western style of play referred to the propensity of Western teams to run the ball primarily around the ends of the line rather than using line plunges, as had been the style in much of the South for several years. This was similar to the style used by many of the Northern schools at the time but differed from the Northern style of play in that it emphasized "trick" plays involving multiple lateral passes (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, August 14th, 1904, p. 13).

Though the boys reportedly at first struggled to adopt the new system emphasizing catching, they caught on fairly quickly, and after just a month of practice annihilated Guilford 59-0. The Aggies' new style of offense proved to be successful against other traditional powerhouses of the rival, as the Farmers went on to defeat a VMI team in Lexington who had not lost at home since 1896, and lost only narrowly to a traditional behemoth of the Southern football realm in Virginia. The loss against UVA, much like the Red and White's ties against North and South Carolina, was attributed to her fairly weak defensive work, in contrast to her offensive prowess. The win against Clemson was also celebrated by fans owing to the 0-24 loss the Farmers suffered in 1903, but it's important to remember that the 1903 team had legendary football coach John Heisman, while the 1904 team did not.

One last feature of the 1904 football season worth mentioning was the seemingly-unexplained cancelations of several well-confirmed games. While cancelations like this in the volatile earlier years of were not uncommon, they were often explained later in newspapers or caused by games not being firmly scheduled. However, the game at Guilford, and in particular the games against Georgia Tech and VPI, were canceled with little formal explanation as to why. My only assumption for the cancelation of both the Guilford and VPI games is that they were canceled while trying to get a game against UNC, but I was unable to find formal writing confirming this. While the cancelation of a few games was due to the aforementioned "Thug Movement," the cancelations of these games was a bit unusual.

The 1904 football team was widely considered to be one of the most successful football teams in early football history at A&M, even later in the same decade. Historians C. D. Harris and Joel Whitaker both called the team "easily the most powerful [team] that the A. & M. had had to date," praising the team for its success over traditionally powerful teams (Red and White, Vol. IX No. 4 (December 1907), p. 157; Red and White, Vol. XII No. 4 (December 1910), p. 179).

Despite his success at A&M, Kienholz decided not to return for a second season with the Farmers, announcing on April 2nd, 1904 (while still coaching the baseball team) that he had accepted a spot as the coach at the University of Colorado for $2,000 a year (just under $57,500 in 2019). After about a month of searching, Kienholz's replacement was announced to be former Cornell player and Sewanee coach George S. Whitney. Whitney's record at Sewanee was impressive, having amassed back-to-back 7-1 seasons in 1903 and 1904 (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, April 2nd, 1904, p. 7; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, May 17th, 1904, p. 3).

At the end of the 1904 season, C. W. Hodges was promoted to manager, and R. H. Smith was elected to take his place as assistant manager. Star Left End Gregory was elected to be the team captain (Red and White, Vol. VI No. 4 (December 1904), p. 240).

While speaking of Southern football in general and attempting to create his own All-Southern team after the close of the season, Kienholz gave his team some glowing reviews. He picked Gardner as his starting left tackle thanks to his experience, his weight, his speed, and his grit; Arthur "Babe" Wilson for right end thanks to his weight and his "wonderful speed and football sense; Captain Abernathy for the starting fullback, owing to his superb offensive work, hard running, and excellent tackling; he also considered Lykes as a secondary center. Though it should be noted that Kienholz really only mentioned schools between North Carolina and Washington, DC (omitting much of the lower Souther), Kienholz clearly thought highly of his team (The (Richmond) Times-Dispatch, December 11th, 1904, p. 2A).

After the completion of the football season, but before the start of the 1905 baseball season, the Athletic Committee adopted the school's first rules for player eligibility. They were approved by the Faculty Board on February 28th, 1905, and were later published in the School Catalogue. The four rules were simple: first, a student had to be enrolled within 30 days of the start of the term in order to be on a team (though this was later changed to the date of October 12th at the behest of the Athletic Committee on April 23rd); second, a student could not join an athletic team if he was "deficient in scholarship"; third, that a student had to be enrolled in at least 17 credit hours; and finally, that no student could be paid or ever have been paid for their membership on an athletic team. These simple rules were roughly in line with what most colleges at that time were doing: creating rules to make sure their players were bonafide students who were not professional athletes. Though simple by modern measures, the implementation of these rules was a huge step in legitimizing NC State athletics. The rules would be changed by the following year (Meeting Minutes 1897-1911 (Vol. 2), North Carolina State University, Faculty Meeting Records, UA 002.004, NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center - pp. 307, 313).