By Chad Roberts
Special to www.ncataggies.com
GREENSBORO -- They say you can forget about records when there’s a rivalry game.

That could be true. But when it comes to the North Carolina A&T-N.C. Central rivalry, you can’t disregard the bands, the tailgating, the vendors, the history and everything else that has become a part of the 81-year old football rivalry. Without those, what would the fans have to debate about over hot grills and cold drinks in the hours leading up to the game?

Like the stadium at kickoff, the tailgating areas on and around campus were close to capacity, and Greensboro-based vendors weren’t the only ones setting up shop in Aggie Stadium. NCCU’s bookstore had a table set up at the stadium to serve the thousands of Eagles fans who came.

Wesley Totten, an NCCU Bookstore employee and native of nearby Yanceyville, N.C., said he had run into several old friends from both schools. He even ran into a track coach from his old high school.

“I’m hoping to see some more friends of mine,” Totten said.

While the two teams made headlines for an on-field brawl at the end of the 2007 contest, the game is more of a friendly rivalry among alumni and friends of the two universities. The schools are separated by roughly 60 miles of highway, and many alumni of one school claim relatives that went to the other.

Solid-gold Aggie T-shirts could be seen among the throngs of burgundy-clad fans on the visitor’s side of the stadium, and the occasional Eagles fan could be spotted sitting among the A&T faithful on the home side. Terrell Smith — an NCCU alumnus and former drummer with the NCCU Marching Sound Machine — and a few of his fellow Eagles mingled with several Aggies fans in a tailgating area hours before the game.

“They’re like cousins to us,” Smith said.

He went on to explain his relationship with former A&T band director and NCCU alumnus Johnny Hodge. Smith said we studied under Hodge when they were at Central together, and Hodge continued to keep in touch when he left Eagleland for Aggieland.

Smith was interrupted twice while telling the story, once by an NCCU alum who was attending the game with her husband, an A&T man. Smith ended his story by declaring that Central had the better band.

“For the past few years, their (A&T’s) drumline ain’t had nothing for us,” Smith said.

A few rows over from Smith in the tailgating area, Charles McNeil (A&T, class of 1970) taunted his sister and some of her friends when they walked over. McNeil called them “Eagles with crooked beaks and broken wings” because they couldn’t go anywhere but Central.

But McNeil, who also had a brother who went to Central, said he would socialize with his rivals anyway, at least for the day.

“We’re all Aggies out here anyway,” McNeil said.