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Just under two before the Farmers' highly anticipated game for the Championship of North Carolina against Davidson, a second major game was being organized--one that was not originally on the schedule for the Red and White. Both the All-Star Team and the game were organized by long-time A&M football compatriot Joel Whitaker. First announced on November 8th, the game was promised to show "The most powerful football eleven to be seen on a gridiron in North Carolina" (News and Observer, November 8th, 1907, p. 8; News and Observer, November 12th, 1907, p. 5).

In the earliest report of the All-Stars' organization, the game was reported to be on both the 18th and the 24th; while both of those dates were open for the Farmers, the former was a bit close to the close of the Davidson game, and the latter too close to the UVA game. Several papers also wrote that though the primary purpose of the team was to play against A&M before their Thanksgiving Day game, there were high hopes that a challenge issued towards UNC would be accepted; this challenge was later declined by UNC's coach, Otis Lamson, since he felt that the date was too close to the day of the Tar Heels' game against the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Richmond that Thanksgiving (The Raleigh Evening Times, November 21st, 1907, p. 3).

Three different lists of the likely All-Star players were published in Raleigh before the game. The lists have been combined below; if sources disagreed, the information from the source published first is marked [1] and the second [2].

Notably, two active A&M players were expected to play on the All-Star team, alongside several former Aggies. Frank Thompson played against his own team because he had played football for five years; Virginia forbade teams who played them from fielding players who had spent more than four years on a collegiate football team. Similarly, Sykes was a graduate student, and did not take the field in Norfolk.

The All-Stars, who wore Blue and White, did not get much time to practice together. The earliest the whole team could have come together to practice was on Saturday, November 16th, just three days before the game was to come off; the following Sunday, it was announced that the team would only get two days of practice and signal work before the game was to come off (News and Observer, November 12th, 1907, p. 5; News and Observer, November 17th, 1907, p. 13).

The All-Stars did face several notable obstacles: in addition to a steady rain during most of the afternoon on November 18th, Jacocks, the Blue and White's expected quarterback, did not arrive in Raleigh until the night before the game. Further, though Gardner had been long expected to play in the game--and had recently been in Raleigh for a dance held in honor of his marriage to May Julia Gardner (née Webb)--he failed to play the following day. Their efforts were further hindered by the fact that their "stars" were, with the exception of Sykes and Frank Thompson, older players who had never played under the new rules (News and Observer, November 19th, 1907, p. 5).

The All-Stars reportedly got their signals straightened out (in addition to a shift in most of the expected line-ups due to Jacocks's tardiness) the afternoon before the game came off. Though some papers reported that the game would be played for 45 minutes (in halves lasting 25 and 20 minutes, respectively), this too also changed before the game, with it instead being agreed to play the game in two 18-minute halves.

The game was highly anticipated, with a writeup in the morning's News and Observer advertising that the Raleigh Electric Company would run a special car to and from the game to help handle the crowd. In addition to the projected fair weather, there was little reason for a football enthusiast to miss out on this game (News and Observer, October 20th, 1907, p. 5; The Raleigh Evening Times, November 20th, 1907, p. 3)

The game started off with A&M sending a long kickoff "to the stars" at the All-Stars' 20-yard line (Winston-Salem Journal, November 21st, 1907, p. 8). On their first two rushes, the Blue and White made only 3 yards and punted the ball away to the Red and White, who were similarly unable to gain: after a fumble on second down, the Aggies saced third down and 12 to go and eleted to punt the ball away themselves. Once back in control of the ball, the Stars made 7-1/2 yards in two downs, but after going for it on third down failed to gain the necessary 2-1/2 yards, turning the ball over to the Aggies.

After getting the ball back, the Farmers started off well: an 8 yard end run by Stephens was followed a little while later by a 12-yard gain (also by Stephens) on a fake pass play. "But this [success] could not last and after three downs the ball went over" to the All-Stars. After an an unsuccessful forward pass, the Stars managed to advance on "a lucky inside kick[]"; on second down, however, the Blue and White were tackled for a loss. On third down, the Stars punted, but had the punt blocked and recovered by the Techs.

Once back in control of the ball, Stephens made a second run on a fake pass, this time for 16 yards. After fumbling on the subsequent play, the Farmers gained 8 yards on a forward pass to Seifert. Stroud continued making gains for the Farmers with two consecutive line plunges, the first for 5 yards and the second for 8. After Beebe gained a few yards, the Farmers were plagued by "Some very erratic playing," including losing 15 yards for holding and a failed forward pass. From roughly midfield, Johnson punted the ball for the Farmers; the Farmers were met with more good fortunte: Simmons and Frank Thompson, who should have caught the kick, missed the kick, and the ball crossed the Blue and White goal line. Either Seifert or Sadler (reports differ) smartly landed on the ball, securing a touchdown for the Farmers. Beebe's kick missed, putting the Aggies up 5-0 just before the close of the first half.

In the dwindling seconds of the first half, the All-Stars kicked the ball off. A&M successfully gained their first 10 yards "in spite of an unfortunate fumble." The Red and White then attempted a forward pass; this one was fumbled but then recovered by the Aggies right as time was called.

The veterans kicked off to start the second half and immediately found better fortunes. Higham tackled Stephens behind the line; after some additional playing, the Farmers attempted a pass from around their own 30-yard line. The pass was batted down and recovered by Sykes, who carried the ball across the goal line of his own team, aided by "beautiful interference" from Cox. As the News and Observer put it, "It was a pity for Sykes to score on his own team, but he did his duty with a very good grace." As Red and White put it, Sykes ran "as nobody ever thought he could make his 205 pounds move." Frank Thompson lined up for the goal kick; "Thompson... tried to kick goal, but it was not in his heart or perhaps not in his good right leg, to beat A. and M., and the goal failed." A second possible explanation proffered by the N&O was that his missed kick was "in mercy to an enterprising seven-year-old rooter who had managed to climb the goal post and roost on the croos-bar [sic]." Thompson's miss tied the score up, 5-5, after just 5-1/2 minutes of play in the second half.

Following A&M's subsequent kickoff, not much of note happened. The game resumed with "a succession of punts with a few fumbles, a little straight [ie, old fashioned] football and enough variety in general to make things spicy for all concerned." The ball was gradually moving closer to the All-Stars' goal (aided by a "glorious poke and end run" by Stephens which netted the Farmers 35 yards). Following a successful forward pass, the Aggies were at the Blue and White's 5-yard line "and expected to cross it." Despite the frenzied cheering of the rooters, and getting as near to scoring as the 1-yard line, the Veterans "formed a barrier... that no team in America could break" to force a turnover on downs. Jacocks immediately punted the ball away from their own goal.

After a few more plays with the Farmers on offense ("as they had been most of the game"), the final whistle blew and the game ended in a 5-5 tie (News and Observer, November 21st, 1907, p. 5; The Raleigh Evening Times, November 21st, 1907, p. 8; Red and White, Vol. IX No. 4 (December 1907), pp. 174-175).

The All-Stars had something of a rotating crop of players; since Jacocks came to Raleigh too late to practice with his own team, he replaced Simmons at some point in the game when he was comfortable and felt ready to play, which had been the plan of the All-Stars going into the game. According to The Raleigh Evening Times, Jacocks acted as a line judge until he was ready to come in, though this is possibly incorrect, as that paper mistakenly reported that Whitaker simultaneously acted as both umpire and right tackle. At some point in the game, Perkins was replaced by Gattis, the only player on the All-Star squad not described in a single pre-game write-up*. At some point Fox game in to replace Seifert for the Aggies; the same was true of Latimore, for Long, and James, for Sadler.

Not much was said of the best players in the game; most papers conceded that all the playing was exceptinal. According to the News and Observer, star play for the All-Stars was reportedly executed by Higham, though "Bull" Thompson "ecpecially [sic] tried to beat the Farmers." Other papers wrote that "Babe" Wilson and Cox also earned praise. Beebe, Sadler, Stephens, and Seifert did excellent work for the Aggies (Charlotte Daily Observer, November 21st, 1907, p. 10; Winston-Salem Journal, November 21st, 1907, p. 8).

Estimates for the attendance of the game varied to some degree; both Raleigh papers agreed that there were 1,000 (or more) spectators present. The Charlotte sportswriter who covered the game, however, conservatively thought that only 700 fans were present, and similarly the Winston-Salem journalist approximated the crowd to be only 800 people. However, given the consensus of the competing Raleigh papers, I've chosen to stick with their estimatin.

The question remains: why would the Farmers arrange a game against a team with so much to lose? Out two star players and playing against some of the most vaunted legends in the state, and having already secured the title of state champion, the Aggies really had nothing to gain and everything to lose. The Aggies had to break out several trick plays they had kept under wraps all season just to gain against the All-Stars; worse, they suffered a slight injury to Seifert, though thankfully the left end was reportedly healthy before the Thanksgiving Day game.

There are a few logical explanations to the decision. Logically, the Farmers needed to practice running the team without their former stars. A more entertaining explanation, though, was offered by College President George Tayloe Winston: "We could find nobody else to beat us and so we tried ourselves, and could even beat ourselves, and the only man that has scored a touch-down on us is a member of our team." The fact that an A&M man was the only one who managed to score on the Aggies was not lost on football enthusiasts (Red and White, Vol. IX No. 4 (December 1907), p. 175).

* It is possible Gattis was Charles H. Gattis, a traveling passenger agent for the Seaboard Railway who helped organize several of A&M's football rooters' train excursions, but I've been unable to find any information connecting Gattis to actually playing football. He had worked for Seabord since at least 1899, meaning he would have been among the oldest two players on the All-Star team. Mostly likely, though, Gattis was a member of the Scrub team who went on to play as a lineman in 1908.