News-Record.com

We attended the resumption of the Winston-Salem State-N.C. A&T football rivalry Saturday afternoon at Aggie Stadium.

This always has been a fierce but good-natured backyard brawl between close neighbors. (Many an A&T alum has a WSSU alum for a spouse or best friend.) But the annual game had to be discontinued because Division 1-AA A&T could not continue to afford two Division II opponents on its schedule (at the time, it was playing Division II WSSU and N.C Central every year). Now that's no longer a problem since WSSU is in the process of moving up to 1-AA.

Saturday's game had all the earmarks of a good time. A sunsplashed late afternoon. A packed house. The halftime battle of the bands. The tastes, smells and fellowship of wall-to-wall tailgating.

Only problem was favored A&T got slapped around 41-14 and I'm not sure it was even as close as that score. This was a butt-whupping in every sense of the word.

At least the A&T band was pretty good. Maybe next year ...

Despite the embarrassing outcome on the field, it's good to see A&T preserving a treasured tradition while cultivating new area rivalries with the likes of Elon.

Problem is, the A&T-Elon game packs the stadium when it's played in Elon; Phoenix and Aggie fans show up there en masse.

But when the game is played in Greensboro, Elon fans stay away in droves.

What's up with that?

As for the WSSU-A&T rivalry, Winston-Salem State fans always show up for their games and so do the A&T faithful.

If only the A&T football team, bless its heart, had showed up Saturday.