John Dell: WSSU-NC A&T should play each other in football every year

There's no better time than at the Bill and Carolyn Hayes Golf Tournament to ask the mysterious question of why Winston-Salem State and NC A&T don't play each other in football every season.

On Friday at Maple Chase Golf & Country Club, the Aggies and Rams and even some NC Central alums were all getting along and playing in a fund-raising golf tournament. The event raised more than $100,000 that will be spread out to several HBCUs. It's something that legendary former football coach Bill Hayes has been doing for the last five years.

As for why the Aggies and Rams don't play each other in football, it's rather complicated.

But Hayes has never been one to beat around the bush. "They should play," he said.

The two schools last played in 2024 when the Rams nearly pulled off the upset, losing to the Aggies 27-24 in overtime in Greensboro. There were some 20,000 fans at the game, and if the two schools played every year, it would be an extra homecoming for the Aggies.

It doesn't seem right that the two schools have played just once in the last 17 seasons, going ahead and counting 2026, when the two schools are once again not playing each other.

Maybe now that both schools have new chancellors, Bonita Brown at WSSU and James Martin at A&T, somebody can pick up a phone and make a call.

Fans want this game. Alumni want this game.

And I would assume a few sponsors would love to help make this game happen.

Anthony Blaylock, a former WSSU star who played in the NFL, is one of the many former players who come back to support the golf tournament every year. Even though Blaylock doesn't play golf, he was there on Friday afternoon to support his old coach.

"This is something I look forward to every year because it's for coach," Blaylock said about the 82-year-old Hayes, who had a total of 195 wins during his legendary coaching career at WSSU and A&T. "The tournament is a big fund-raiser for his foundation, and it's a big help to these schools."

Blaylock joked that seeing other Aggies at the golf tournament is wonderful.

"We talk about who won this game or that game," he said. "It's all in good fun, especially since all of us are so old now."

Without being prompted, Blaylock also said what needed to be said: "Chancellor Brown and Chancellor Martin need to sit down and make the rivalry game happen again."

If you take out the homecoming game attendance of both schools, some of the highest attended games in their history are when the Aggies came to Bowman Gray Stadium or the Rams went to Greensboro.

The Aggies might not ever come to Winston-Salem again, but so what? Play the game in Greensboro every year and call it "The Bill Hayes Classic."

Robert Weeks, a star player for WSSU in the late 1970s, has been a big booster for WSSU for years and has been on the Big House Gaines Hall of Fame committee. It's no secret he would love to have the game played again.

"I'm at a loss as to why the two schools can't figure out something and play this game every year," Weeks said. "It just doesn't make sense to not play this game. Both schools' fans want to see it happen."

While WSSU's schedule is more flexible because it's Division II, NC A&T has three schools it's agreed to play in 2027 in NC Central (in Charlotte), at NC State and at Chicago State. There's possibly room for the Rams in 2027.

There are great rivalries in this state, and the WSSU-A&T rivalry is one of them.

Somebody at either school needs to pick up a phone and call. And it would be best if it was a chancellor.

Let's get it done.

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