Wooden spoon (award) facts for kids
A wooden spoon is a fun, unofficial award given to the person or team that finishes last in a competition. It's often just a saying, meaning no actual spoon is given out. This idea started in Britain and spread to other English-speaking countries. You can find "wooden spoons" in many different kinds of events, from school exams to big sports tournaments.
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The Wooden Spoon at Cambridge University
The idea of the wooden spoon first became famous at the University of Cambridge in England. Here, it was a special "booby prize" given by students to the person who got the lowest passing score on a very tough math exam called the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos. Even though they passed, they were still at the very bottom of the list!
The actual wooden spoons given out grew bigger over time, some even reaching five feet long! It was a tradition to playfully dangle these huge spoons from a balcony in the Senate House as the student came forward to get their degree. However, this fun tradition was stopped by the university in 1875.
Students who scored a bit better, but still not the best, were sometimes called "silver spoon" or "golden spoon" winners. The student with the highest score was known as the "senior wrangler". The custom of giving out wooden spoons lasted for many years, from the late 1700s until 1909. After 1910, exam results were listed in alphabetical order, so it became impossible to tell who came in last.
The Last Wooden Spoon
The very last wooden spoon was given to Cuthbert Lempriere Holthouse in 1909. He was a rower from Lady Margaret Boat Club at St John's College, Cambridge. This special spoon has a handle shaped like an oar and has a message written in Greek. It roughly translates to:
"In math honors, this is the very last of all the wooden spoons you see here. Oh, you who see it, shed a tear."
This last spoon is now kept at St. John's College. Other old wooden spoons can be found at places like Selwyn College Library. In 2009, St. John's College even held an exhibition to show off five of these surviving wooden spoons!
The Wooden Spoon in Sports
The term "wooden spoon" is also widely used in sports around the world to describe the team or player that finishes in last place.
Rugby Union
In rugby union, especially in the Six Nations Championship, the team that finishes last is said to have won the "wooden spoon." If a team loses all its matches, it's also called being "whitewashed." This term has been used in rugby for a long time, even back in the late 1800s.
Australian and New Zealand Sports
The idea of the wooden spoon is very common in sports in Australia and New Zealand. It's used in big leagues like the AFL (Australian rules football), the A-League (soccer), NRL (rugby league), and Super Rugby (rugby union). It simply means the team at the very bottom of the league table at the end of the season.
Suncorp Super Netball
In netball, teams like the Adelaide Thunderbirds have received the wooden spoon in past seasons. For example, in 2018, they lost all their games, which led to their coach being replaced. More recently, teams like the Queensland Firebirds, Collingwood Magpies, and Melbourne Vixens have also finished last.
Major League Soccer
In North American men's Major League Soccer (MLS), the team in last place in the overall standings is often called the "wooden spoon champion." What's unique here is that there's actually a physical trophy! In 2016, a group of independent fan clubs created a real "trophy" for the last-place team. This trophy is passed from one "winning" team's supporters to the next each year.
The first team to get this physical spoon was the Chicago Fire in 2015. Their fans even named it the Andrew Hauptman Memorial Wooden Spoon, after the team's owner at the time. Later, in 2017, it was renamed the Anthony Precourt Memorial Wooden Spoon, after the owner of the Columbus Crew who was trying to move the team.
D.C. United and the San Jose Earthquakes hold the record for the most "wooden spoon wins" in MLS history. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the spoon wasn't officially awarded in 2020. The most recent team to hold the spoon is Toronto FC (from the 2023 season).
Canadian Premier League
The Canadian Premier League also has an unofficial wooden spoon trophy for the team that finishes with the fewest points. Valour FC was the most recent team to receive it in the 2023 season.
Oxford and Cambridge Rowing
In the "bumps races" at Cambridge and Oxford universities, a rowing crew that gets "bumped" (passed by another boat) every day of the race series is awarded spoons. This is likely connected to the old Cambridge University tradition of the wooden spoon in math exams.
Tennis
In tennis, a "wooden spoon" or "anti-slam" is a funny way to describe the worst possible outcome for a player in a tournament. It goes to the player who loses in the first round to someone who then loses in the second round, and so on, all the way up to the tournament's final match. It means you lost to the player who started a chain of losers!
Many famous tennis players have unofficially "won" a wooden spoon in Grand Slam tournaments, including John McEnroe, Rafael Nadal, and Naomi Osaka. Some players, like Greg Rusedski, have even "claimed" three wooden spoons in their careers!
See also
- County Championship Wooden Spoons
- Lanterne rouge – the last finisher in a cycling race
- Wooden Spoon Society
- Nul points
