The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/73006
■ PACK PAST Matchups Versus The Volunteers Have Been Rare NC State's records show that the 1893 squad (above) defeated Tennessee 12-6 in Raleigh for the first win over a college team that the school, then called the North Carolina School for Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, ever posted. football field. In fact, despite nearly 250 years of football F between them, the two Southern stalwarts have met only three previous times before the scheduled Aug. 31 Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta — depending on whose records you consider. This year's season opener is a made-for- television affair that will be on ESPNU, but in a primetime Friday night slot that might have an even bigger audience than the re- cent Thursday night games the Wolfpack has played against SEC foe South Carolina to open the college football season. The game is the first in an ACC-SEC dou- bleheader played on back-to-back nights to start the Labor Day weekend at the domed stadium, which will attract nearly 150,000 fans to the Peach State. Clemson and Auburn will play the next day. For Tom O'Brien and his charges, facing the Volunteers will be a strong test for a pro- gram that has been on a steady climb since 144 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER or a pair of large public institutions in neighboring states, NC State and Ten- nessee have been infrequent foes on the the head coach came to Raleigh six years ago from Boston College. Regardless of Tennes- see's losing record last year (5-7 overall, 1-7 SEC), a win over the Volunteers would make a bigger statement than the Wolfpack's back- to-back victories in both the Champs Sports Bowl and Belk Bowl combined. NC State's records show that Tennessee was the first college team the school, then called the North Carolina School for Agri- culture and Mechanic Arts, ever beat — a 12-6 victory in Raleigh in 1893, played on a plowed field at the old state fairgrounds. But that game isn't in Tennes- see's record books, though it does show three losses to Wake Forest, Duke and North Carolina during the first week of November of that year, but not to A&M. The season was so humiliating, PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS than the Raleigh Boys Academy that A&M played in the program's first two seasons, when the teams lined up at the old fair- grounds across the street from NC State's current campus in Raleigh. This was one of the few games the Farmers ever played wear- ing the famous pink-and-blue uniforms selected by the school's newly formed literary societies. For A&M, in its first year under Raleigh lawyer Bart Gatling, the victory was the jumping off spot for what is now almost 120 years of football history. Two years later, the A&M foot- When NC State faces head coach Derek Dooley and Tennessee on Aug. 31, it will mark only the fourth game against the Volunteers Tennessee shut down its varsity football program for the next two years, playing the equivalent of a club sched- ule against neighborhood opponents. The Volunteers were the only team other in program history. PHOTO COURTESY TENNESSEE ball team made its first trip out of state, with most of the 75 mem- bers of the student body travel- ing by train to Atlanta to play an unknown opponent as part of the Cotton States and International Exposition. Once there, the team arranged a contest with the Vir- ginia Military Institute on the At- lanta Athletic Fields, which is on the site of present day Piedmont Park. After A&M scored the game's first touch-