Wooden spoon (award) facts for kids
A wooden spoon is a special award given to a person or team that finishes last in a competition. It's like a "booby prize" for coming in the very last place. This idea started in Britain and is now used in many other English-speaking countries. Most of the time, it's just a saying, and no actual wooden spoon is given out.
The Wooden Spoon at Cambridge University
The wooden spoon award first started at the University of Cambridge in England. It was given by students to the person who got the lowest score on their math exams, called the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos, but still managed to pass with a "third-class degree." The person who received it was also sometimes called "the spoon." This prize became quite famous!
And while he lives, he wields the boasted prize
Whose value all can feel, the weak, the wise;
Displays in triumph his distinguish'd boon,
The solid honours of the Wooden Spoon
The actual wooden spoons given out grew bigger over time, some becoming as long as five feet! Students used to playfully dangle them from a balcony in the Senate House as the student came to get their degree. However, this tradition was stopped by the university in 1875.
Students who scored a bit higher, but still not the best, were sometimes called "silver spoon" (for a second-class degree) or "golden spoon" (for a first-class degree). The student with the highest score was known as the "senior wrangler."
This tradition of the wooden spoon goes back to at least the late 1700s and continued until 1909. After 1910, exam results were listed in alphabetical order, not by score. This made it impossible to know who came in last, unless only one person was in the lowest passing group.
The Last Wooden Spoon Award
The very last wooden spoon was given to Cuthbert Lempriere Holthouse in 1909. He was a rower from the Lady Margaret Boat Club at St John's College, Cambridge. The handle of his spoon looks like an oar and has a message written in Greek. It roughly translates to:
In Honours Mathematical,
This is the very last of all
The Wooden Spoons which you see here;
O you who see it, shed a tear.
Or, another way to say it:
This wooden object is the last souvenir of the competitive examinations in mathematics. Look upon it, and weep.
The last wooden spoon awarded is now kept at St John's College, Cambridge. An older spoon is at the Selwyn College Library. In 2009, to celebrate 100 years since the last spoon was given, St John's College showed five surviving wooden spoons in an exhibition.
Wooden Spoon in Sports
The term "wooden spoon" is also used in many sports around the world to describe the team or player that finishes last.
Rugby Union
In rugby union's Six Nations Championship, the "wooden spoon" is a way of saying that a team finished in last place. If a team loses all its matches, it's also called being "whitewashed." People have used this term in rugby since at least the late 1800s. For example, in 1892, a book about rugby mentioned Wales earning the "wooden spoon" for losing all their international matches.
Australian and New Zealand Sports
The term "wooden spoon" is very common in sports in Australia and New Zealand. It's used in major leagues like the AFL (Australian rules football), the A-League (soccer), NRL (rugby league), and Super Rugby (rugby union). It simply means the club that is at the very bottom of the league table at the end of the season.
VFL/AFL Wooden Spoons
National Rugby League
Big Bash League (cricket)
Suncorp Super Netball
In the 2017 and 2018 Suncorp Super Netball seasons, the Adelaide Thunderbirds finished last. In 2018, they lost all fourteen of their regular season games. The Queensland Firebirds, Collingwood Magpies, and Melbourne Vixens have also received the wooden spoon in recent years, with the Vixens being the most recent.
Major League Soccer
In men's Major League Soccer in Canada and the United States, the team in last place in the overall standings is often called the "wooden spoon champion." Unlike other sports where it's just a saying, there is actually a physical "trophy" for this award!
Before the 2016 MLS season, a group of independent fan supporters decided to create a real trophy for the last-place team. This trophy is passed to the "winning" team at their yearly meeting. The team that holds the spoon must keep it for the whole next season. At the end of the year, the fan groups who received the Wooden Spoon can decide what they want to do with the trophy, even if it means not showing it off.
The Chicago Fire were the first team to "win" this wooden spoon trophy in 2015. Their fans created the first spoon and named it the Andrew Hauptman Memorial Wooden Spoon. This was a way for them to show their unhappiness with the team's owner at the time, Andrew Hauptman. In 2017, the spoon was renamed the Anthony Precourt Memorial Wooden Spoon, after the owner of the Columbus Crew who was trying to move the team to a different city.
The San Jose Earthquakes have "won" the spoon the most times (in 1997, 2000, 2008, 2018, and 2024). Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wooden spoon was not officially given out for the 2020 Major League Soccer season, as the fan group felt it wasn't right for a shortened season. The San Jose Earthquakes are the current holders of the spoon (from 2024).
Canadian Premier League
The Canadian Premier League also has an unofficial wooden spoon trophy. It's given to the team that finishes with the fewest points at the end of the regular season. Valour FC was the most recent team to receive it in the 2023 Canadian Premier League 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, moving down four places, is awarded spoons. This is likely connected to the wooden spoon prize from the Cambridge math exams.
Tennis
In tennis, a "wooden spoon" is sometimes mentioned as the worst possible outcome in a tournament. It's given to a 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.
Many famous tennis players have been "wooden spooners" in Grand Slam tournaments. These include John McEnroe (at 1978 Wimbledon Championships), Rafael Nadal (at the 2016 Australian Open), and Naomi Osaka (at the 2017 French Open). More recently, Félix Auger-Aliassime received it at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, and Simona Halep at the 2022 US Open (tennis) and again at the 2024 Miami Open.
Some players have received the wooden spoon multiple times. For example, Greg Rusedski received it three times (at the 1994 and 1995 US Open, and the 2006 Wimbledon Championships).
See also
In Spanish: Cuchara de madera para niños
- County Championship Wooden Spoons
- Lanterne rouge – the last finisher in a cycling race
- Wooden Spoon Society
- Nul points
