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  * Non-conference games

  ** Time is approximated from discussions of pre-game meetings discussed here.

  * Non-conference games

As mentioned in the close of the 1905 season, football in 1906 was very different from what it had been the previous years after the sport faced intense national scrutiny for its violence and promotion of unsportsmanlike acts; as Walter Camp succinctly put it, "Inordinate desire to win has proved the curse of American football." Following a lengthy summer of revisions, including six total meetings by the leading football minds, the game saw a number of changes from the 1905 season, to the point that noted football pioneer Walter Camp was quoted as saying he had no idea what football would look like in 1905 (The (Davenport, IA) Daily Times, September 17th, 1906, p. 8).

In reality, the changes made football look shockingly similar to how it does today. The distance to gain was changed from 5 to 10 yards, though the 3-down system was retained; the purpose of this change was to eliminate the unpopular-yet-effective "mass plays" which had been a prominent target of anti-football proponents' criticism for several years. This compromise allowed for mass plays during goal line rushes, or when a short distance was needed, but prevented a team from carrying the ball all the way down the field in that manner, as, statistically, even in the early 1900's the average "mass play" netted only 3 yards. In another massive change, forward passes were now allowed, with the hopes of "opening up" the game. Only one pass attempt was allowed per scrimmage, as it is today. The pass-catcher was not allowed to be one of the men lined up along the line of scrimmage, unless he was one of the two men on the ends of the line--today, this refers to the tight end. Despite this, there were serious ramifications for missing a forward pass: an untouched incomplete forward pass resulted in an automatic turnover at the spot of the attempted throw--this was considered "liberal" in comparison to the original phrasing of the rule. The final of the three "major" changes of the time was allowing a kicked ball that is not caught by a fair catch to be recovered by either team. The purpose of this change was to encourage kicking, which had been recently becoming "something of a lost art" (The (Davenport, IA) Daily Times, September 8th, 1906, p. 8; The (Davenport, IA) Daily Times, September 17th, 1906, p. 8; The (Davenport, IA) Daily Times, September 22nd, 1906, p. 8).

Other major changes included the concept of downing a runner (though at this time runners were not yet "automatically down" as they are today in college football) once any part of his body aside from his hands and feet touched the ground; personal fouls resulting in automatic disqualification on top of a 15 yard penalty, and the same penalty (less the disqualification) for unnecessary roughness; rules on tackling below the knees, unsportsmanlike conduct, and holding (these changes effectively banned the several implementations of interference as the defense had previously known it); the creation of the neutral zone; adding an additional official to each game; and the shortening of the game from two 35-minute halves to two 30-minute halves, with three time-outs per half (The (Davenport, IA) Daily Times, September 17th, 1906, p. 8; Nelson, pp. 123-125).

Most officials and football enthusiasts of the time recognized that the changes were highly experimental. Camp himself acknowledged that "The [rules] committee has in mind what it believes will result, but when practice begins some of our theories may be found to have been worthless." Eastern coaches were divided, with Harvard's W. T. Reid forseeing "great changes" to the game as it existed, but Pennsylvania's coach, A. L. Smith saying that "There is no doubt that the new football rules will not last another season," adding that the changes "practically spoiled" the game. Other coaches who favored the changes included Princeton's captain Dillon, Michigan's famous Fielding Yost, Illinois' Physical Director Huff, Nebraska's Coach Amos Foster, and former Penn State coach William "Pop" Golden. Other detractors included John Cates and T. B. Howard of Navy, but not many others, at least before the start of the season (The Philadelphia Enquirer, October 7th, 1906, Section 4, p. 1).

Despite the hope for more exciting games that were free of injury, things got off to a slow start. The first "big game" played in the East was a 7-0 victory over New Hampshire State College by the University of Maine. The game, which was described as "crude and unsatisfactory," was played in the rain, making it "hardly a fair test" of the new rules; it is, however, worth noting that the game was free from injury. About a week later, the Yale team's attempts to learn the new rules was called "a comedy of errors," due to many failed forward passes and the inability to make gains using old tactics (The (Minneapolis) Sunday Journal, September 23rd, 1906, Part IV, p. 1; The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 29th, 1906, p. 8; The Washington Times, October 1st, 1906, p. 10).

Despite these early failures, most fans were optimistic that the game was headed in the right direction. The new rules met some detractors when first exhibited in Raleigh in A&M's season-opening matchup against Randolph-Macon as well; fans primarily complained that the forward passes were only practicable against substantially weaker teams. Even after the closer and more interesting tie game against Richmond, Raleigh's fans derisively called the rules "new-fangled" and wrote that they showed no real advantage over the old ones. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any comments about the new rules after the William & Mary game, the last home game of the season.

While rules about player eligibility and the definition of a student athlete were still being nailed down at a school-by-school and conference-by-conference level, A&M made their first major attempt at creating a set of eligibility rules. While stricter rules at UNC and the SIAA canceled potential matches against the Tar Heels and Georgia, A&M's set of rules were fairly strict for their time. They required athletes to enroll within thirty days of the start of classes, required students to take seventeen or more class hours per week in order to play football or baseball, and barred students who had played professionally or been paid to play a sport from competing. These rules were discarded after less than a year in favor of rules closer to those of UNC and UVA's (Beezley, pp. 17-18).

To help the Farmers navigate their way through the rapidly-changing landscape college football, famous Michigan halfback William Martin "Willie" Heston was brough in. Described as the "greatest halfback ever turned out by an American college," (C. D. Harris, p. 180) Heston's fame was perhaps his biggest downfall. After graduating from Michigan in the spring of 1904, he didn't play football for a year because no professional team was willing to pay him the $1,200 (just over $34,000 in 2019) he wanted to play. In 1905, he coached the Drake team to a 4-4 record; he was also successfully coaxed into playing a single game for the nascent Canton Bulldogs for a paltry $500 ($14,200 in 2019). The team against which Heston played for the Bulldogs was the strong 9-0 Ohio League champion Massillon Tigers. In the game, which was played on Thanksgiving, Canton lost 14-4 and Heston failed to gain a single yard (Beezley, pp. 18-19).

Heston departed Drake following the 1905. The decision was primarily a monetary decision: Drake could not afford to pay him and was also seeking to find a coach with a lower salary, as Heston's 4-4 Drake team failed to draw large crowds. Also a factor in Heston leaving Drake was the awkward relationship between former-coach William James Monilaw, who was demoted to manager after Heston was brought in (The (Des Moines, Iowa) Register and Leader December 22nd, 1905, p. 7; The Paterson (NJ) Morning Call, January 27th, 1906, p. 16). Though Heston had hoped early on to get a job as the coach of either Michigan (the Wolverines wisely stuck with the famous Fielding "Farmer" Yost) or Ohio State (who picked Albert Herrnstein), reports said he was too busy trying to organize a long-time pet project of his involving pitting the college stars of the East and West against each other in a match game of football to have yet accepted a coaching position* (The Nashville American, January 15th, 1906, p. 3).

Heston accepted his coaching position at A&M on August 26th, hardly a month before the start of the football season (The Wilmington Messenger, August 28th, 1906, p. 5). Though reports did not indicate how much Heston was paid for his services, the college "had to strain some points" to secure Heston's services. The college all-star left his home in Detroit for Raleigh in early September, arriving on September 5th and immediately setting to work, sending the boys into practice from 4 to 6:30 PM every afternoon thereafter (The Raleigh Evening Times September 28th, 1906, p. 1). An excited write-up in the year's first issue of Red and White detailed Heston's prolific history as a football player at Michigan, and included a story about how he carried the ball for gains 38 consecutive times in his final game at Michigan, a 22-12 win over rival Chicago, along with his many other accolades (Red and White, Vol. VIII No. 1 (September 1906), pp. 18-21).

Notably, Heston was not a big fan of the new rules; at a conference in Chicago in August, a panel of football authorities led by Fielding Yost (among which Heston and former Michigan teammate Dan McGugin participated) concluded that "the most prominent factor to success in football during the coming season will be the possession of a man capable of punting far and hard" (St. Louis Daily Globe-Demoacrat, August 16th, 1906, p. 10). Later that August after a practice game at Ferry Field (the home stadium of Michigan's Wolverines until 1927), Heston remained dubious of claims that the changes would make the game safer. He was quoted as saying "Gee whiz. A wreck in every play; I'll tell you what you'll have to do, Keene [Fitzpatrick, noted Michigan trainer]. You'll have to train a squad on how to carry stretchers" (The Detroit Free Press, August 28th, 1906, p. 9).

Heston was described as "much liked" by football candidates. In addition to the "splendid" services of Heston, the team had for the first time ever the help of an assistant coach who would focus primarily on the scrub team, as well as the captaincy of their long-time star "Curley" Wilson, who was one of two All-Southern ends picked the previous season. Though he was elected captain following the 1905 season, the position was put up for trial again and Wilson was selected unanimously on the day before the team's first game (The Raleigh Evening Times, September 28th, 1906, p. 2; News and Observer, August 31st, 1906, p. 4; The Charlotte News, February 3rd, 1906, p. 6; News and Observer, September 30th, 1906, p. 13).

A&M also made a big change in 1906 in terms of where their games were played. Though the original petition for the park in January 1905 estimated the park would cost $3,000 (over $87,000 in 2019 dollars), by September 1906 that cost had doubled to $6,000--just under $170,500 in 2019. Construction began in late March, by which point the price had been upped to $5,000 (The Morning Post, January 7th, 1905, p. 2; The Wilmington Messenger, August 28th, 1906, p. 5; Daily Industrial News, March 30th, 1906, p. 6). Though there were hopes that the combination football field, baseball diamond, tennis courts, and track would be finished in time for the season-opening game on October 1st and steady progress through late July, as the summer dragged on, rain slowed down the construction, and the field was not completed until just before the season's second home game, on October 11th (News and Observer, July 25th, 1906, p. 5; News and Observer, September 30th, 1906, p. 13; The Raleigh Evening Times, October 10th, 1906, p. 1).

Despite the big changes in organization and playing locations, the team had the advantage of returning several starters. With Wilson at the helm, other returning stars included Vance Sykes, Samuel "Si" Perkins, Harwood Beebe, Bill Eskridge, Philip Hardie, O. Shuford, Victor Van Sykes, and Temple, though there were more students showing up practicing to make the team than ever before, enough players to have three teams practicing on most days. According to Heston, the team started off ahead of schedule in terms of practice, and reports claimed the team would be "the fastest team the college has had," hoping to take advantage of the new rule changes which encouraged speed (The Raleigh Evening Times, September 28th, 1906, pp. 1-2; The Farmers and Mechanic, September 18th, 1906, p. 8).

The Aggies did well on their opening week, smashing Randolph-Macon 39-0 on a Monday afternoon. Five days later they played their second game of the week against Virginia in Charlottesville; the game ended in a tie after a long and intense game between two ex-Michigan coaches who were both former Yost acolytes from Michigan. Five days later, the Farmers played Richmond at their brand-new athletic field and scored their second straight tie, though most fans of the Red and White vocally pointed out that the Techs would have won had Wilson not been removed early in the first half after accidentally kicking a Richmond player.

Just two days after playing Richmond, the Aggies headed to Virginia again to meet VMI, who they beat 17-0. After another two days the Farmers were tied by Washington & Lee, though under normal circumstances the Farmers likely would have beaten both Lexington-based schools: several W&L football players refereed the VMI game, allowing the team to learn all of A&M's trick plays. Three days after meeting the duo of Lexington schools, the Aggies were back on their home field, where they smashed William & Mary 44-0 in front of a small State Fair crowd.

Drama began brewing before the Red and White's first game not against a Virginia-based team. Before the Clemson game, Clemson raised an argument over the eligibility of several A&M players, claiming that Wilson had played football for too many years, and that at least one A&M player was ineligible due to professionalism rules, as he had been paid to play summer baseball. Both counts were, to some degree, true: Wilson was playing his fifth season of college football and was an Assistant Professor in Chemistry at A&M rather than a student, though it was noted that one of his five seasons was spent as a prep student and thereford did not count towards his four years of playing. The other claim of there being at least one professional ball-player on A&M's team was also true, as freshman and Raleigh-native Frank "Bull" Thompson had previously played on Sumter, South Carolina's baseball team (The (Sumter, SC) Watchman and Southron, November 28th, 1906, p. 4).

While Clemson played the game, Clemson Vice President Walter Riggs wrote to Georgia to inform the Athenians that if Georgia played A&M, they would be blacklisted from and kicked out of the SIAA. While Georgia strongly protested Riggs' actions, they attempted to arrange a game with the Aggies nonetheless, paying for the travel expenses of any two players from Raleigh, but the Farmers left for Raleigh before arrangements could be made to ameliorate the problems. Problems regarding player eligibility followed A&M northward, causing the cancelation of their rivalry game against UNC. To complete the trio of canceled games, the Aggies' game against Roanoke College was canceled for unexplained reasons.

The Techs' final game of the season was against Virginia Tech on Thanksgiving Day. Played in what was then one of the college football hubs of the South--Richmond, Virginia, this game was proclaimed to be the biggest game the Farmers had ever played; watched by 10,000 fans, it was also their most-viewed. Though the Farmers' stout defense proved almost impregnable for the Virginians, bad handling of kicks led to the lone touchdown of the game, though A&M was a mis-handled goal-line pass from tying the game at the end of the second half.

Interestingly, A&M played the final game without the guidance of Heston and was instead coached primarily by Joel Whitaker, who was assisted by former captain O. Max Gardner and professor W. C. Riddick. Heston left Raleigh about ten days before their Thanksgiving Day match in Richmond to play for a group of Michigan Alumni against Wolverine-rival Chicago on Thanksgiving Day; he took a $100 pay-cut (nearly $2,850 in 2019) so he could leave the school early. Though the original game got canceled (along with his $500 payout for playing the game), Heston managed to organize a second Thanksgiving Day game, this time between a group of Western All-Stars (on which he played) and the Massillon Tigers in just two days' time (The Lake County (IN) Times, November 20th, 1906, p. 3; The South Bend (IN) Tribune, November 26th, 1906, p. 3). He lost the game 9-4 and broke his ankle, swearing after the deafeat to never again play a game of professional football (The Washington Post, December 9th, 1906, p. 2). And though the Michigan star attempted to return to football in the administrative sector as an assistant coach to Michigan, the Wolverines were unable to hire him, citing money as their main concern. He instead practiced law in Detroit for the remainder of his working career (The Detroit Free Press, September 25th, 1907, p. 10).

Though the Farmers lost only one game, the season was generally considered something of a let down to several fans owing to the high number of ties. Most sources generally concluded that the main reason the Aggies had so many ties despite their potential to run up large scores was because Heston failed to adapt to new rule changes. Indeed, several game summaries wrote that the Farmers attempted to gain primarily through "the old methods" of mass plays and some speed instead of kicking and passing (Beezley, pp. 18-19).

Also the cause of some disappointment was the loss of game against in-state rival UNC. After playing UNC nearly every year from 1894-1906 (meeting twelve times in twelve years but not playing in 1896, 1900, and 1903), the two Research Triangle neighbors would not meet again until 1919. As the amount of time between matches increased, VPI became the Farmers main rival; this was solidified after the Thanksgiving match of 1906 (Beezley, p. 19). The two teams first met in 1900 as a part of the North Carolina State Fair, and met again in 1902 and 1903 before taking a two year hiatus. Despite the fact the two teams were primary rivals for a time from roughly 1906-1923 (when UVA-VPI resumed athletic relations), the teams would not string together a long run of consecutive meetings until after that window had closed.

After his final season as a football coach, Heston had more input on how the changed rules impacted the game, and his criticisms were largely fairly prescient. He considered the fact that all kicks were considered a live ball one of the greatest mistakes of the rule changes, saying that the rule made a match into nothing more than a game of chance; he said "If they [the rules committee] keep on giving us such football legislation as that, the captains of the two teams just may as well get together in dress suites in the middle of the gridiron and shake dice to see which team wins." Additionally, he thought the penalty for a failed forward pass should be made less severe and that either the distance to gain should be changed from 7 yards on three downs or have the number of downs increased to four (Nashville Banner, December 24th, 1906, p. 13).

* He was making good progress on organizing the game in January-February 1906, with several reports detailing the line-up of the Western team. Though much of the Eastern team was also organized, the game never took place; after Heston's injury on Thanksgiving Day, 1906, he swore he would never take part in a professional football game again.