Football Recollections
Mr. King lolls of tlio sfnrl of football at
Wake Forest and some c»f tlie obstacles and
difficulties that teams in those days had to
cope with in trying to gel along.
THK article by Hon. Walter
Murphy, which appeared in The
State two weeks ago, giving
some particulars about the start of
football in North Carolina, was very
interesting to some of us old-timers.
1 1 is story went a little further hack
than my knowledge or memory
reaches, fur I entered Wake Forest
in the fall of 1893, five years after
football had it- beginning in our
state, according to historian Murphy.
At that time the echoes were still
ringing with the wonderful deeds of
those teams he speaks of : his own at
Carolina, those led l»v Daniels at Trin¬
ity and those led by Sikes. Riddick
and others at Wake Forest.
Our Wake team, a year or two be¬
fore my coming to college, had cov¬
ered itself with glory, hut at the be¬
ginning of the '93 term, most of the
stars had graduated and gone, leav¬
ing only n handful of the old regulars
to carry on R. W. Sikes, Raleigh
Daniel, Roy Itritton and a very few
others. Dr. Sikes, afterward president
ot Clemson (,'ollegc, was then instruc¬
tor in political Science at Wake For¬
est, hut that didn’t prevent his play¬
ing on the team under the rules and
regulations of that time.
Overwhelmed by Carolina
We had a hard time getting started
that year, and a still harder time
winding up, the la*t game U>ing with
Carolina in Raleigh, with Pete Mur¬
phy playing renter on the Carolina
team.
Our team went down by a score
of <i() to n, find l lie game didn’t go the
full time limit, as I remember it. 1
was in uniform on the side lines and
felt rather lucky, under the circum¬
stances, in not being ealh'd in to
play. I am inclined to believe that
that was the last college football
game that Murphy over played, or
among the la-t anyway, inasmuch as
he *avs he began in 188*.
Karlier in the year Wake Forest
had played Trinity and went down to
defeat, but by no such overwhelming
score as the one I have just men¬
tioned. We had also played Tennessee
at Wake Forest and licat them 110
fit; GRAY R.
К
I AG
to 0. Yes; that’s correct 110 to 0.
Quito a contrast to Tennessee’s rec¬
ord in recent years. As I recall, the
Volunteers had a pitifully weak team,
and, unless I am mistaken, it was
the first season that they undertook
to play football.
An outstanding play in that game
ihat I recall vividly after a lapse of
•IS years was the one in which a little
Tennessee player, weighing not much
over 100 pounds, tackled 200- pound
Raleigh Daniel in the open field,
catching him with one hand by the
belt and bringing him down with a
suddenness that wa* staggering. I will
never forget the expression of utter
amazement on Raleigh’s face when he
got up and stared at the little fellow.
No Team in 1894
After the game with < ’arolina— the
one with the 00*0 score, our boys quit
and made no effort to pul out a team
in 1894. But when wo got back in
college in ’05 enough of the old foot-
bnll spirit was left in some of ns and
we started again. However, nearly all
of the old players had left school, and
we had to start from scratch.
About that time, football had come
into disrepute in some colleges, and
Wake Forest, like some of the others,
had taken action more or less against
it through its Hoard of Trustees. The
hoard, at its spring meeting, had
passed a resolution authorizing the
faculty •<> regulate or abolish it as the
members saw lit.
.So you see, wo had a hard time
ahead of us: poor material, no coach,
and the sentiment of the faculty
against us. Nevertheless we managed
t«» scrape up a team and made an en¬
gagement for a game with A. A* M.
(now State) College at Raleigh.
On the eve of the game, another
Loiubshcll fell into our ramp. The
faculty, under the authority given
them by the trustees, told us we
shouldn’t leave the college unless ev¬
ery minor on the team had the con¬
sent of his parents. These boys were
from all sections of North Carolina
hut we got busy over the wires and
secured the required permission. So
we went to Raleigh and played a
bang-up game against A. A- M. It re¬
sulted in a 4-4 tie, the 'Coring sys¬
tem in those days being different from
what il is now.
And now we
сото
to the last act
in our foot lull I story of those days.
When we got hack to Wake Forest
that night, the facility informed u*
that no more games should U< played
— permission from parent* or no per
mission. And that was the last inter-
collegiate game of football Wake
Forest played for 12 years until 10**7.
Some Outstanding Players
The 1908 team had the distinction
of having our present (iovernor. the
Hon. .1. M. Broughton, on it. Pass¬
ing on through the years, I believe
that it was the 1922 team which had
Harry Rabenhorst a- a meinlier. lie
still holds the world's kicking record
for distance. At other times Wake
Forest ha* had outstanding individual
player who would have been stars on
any football team in the mini try. But
our college was always handicaps lie-
cause of lack of sufficient reserve* and
also the lack of fund*. Until quite
recently it was sadly lacking in field
equipment. Gore Field was an excel¬
lent starter and the present Grove*
Stadium ha* proved a happy climax
thus far.
Going hack for a . . . to “the
good old days" ; prominent among the
players on our '95 team were I'lnud
Gore, of “Gon? Field fame''; Hill
Fenner, legislator of note and leading
tobacconist of Rocky Mount; drown
Oannady, Oxford lawyer: Schyler
Moss, late planter and politician of
Halifax County, and dolili Gore,
brother of Claud, . . let a tragic
death many years ago in the frozen
marshes around Wilmington while on
a hunting trip.
The writer was manager of the
Wake Forest team, and John How¬
ard was manager of the A. A- M.
boys when we played them.