While Tipperary are regarded as one of the "big three" of hurling, with Cork and Kilkenny completing the trio, Wexford are ranked joint fifth in the all-time roll of honour and have enjoyed sporadic periods of dominance at various stages throughout the history of the championship.

[citation needed] In 1951 Wexford made a long-overdue breakthrough when they captured the Leinster title for the first time in thirty-three years before later facing Tipperary in the All-Ireland decider on 2 September 1951.

On 4 September 1960 Tipperary entered the All-Ireland final against Wexford as red-hot favourites, however, a bumper crowd of 77,154 witnessed one of the biggest shocks in the history of the championship.

A series of team switches at half time, including the introduction of John Quigley, helped transform the Leinster champions.

Tipperary fought back, however, goals from Seán McLoughlin and Michael "Babs" Keating weren't enough to halt one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the championship, as Wexford secured a 5–8 to 3–12 victory.

The opening stages of the game were fiercely fought, with the teams exchanging points to leave the score at 0–5 apiece after twenty-two minutes.

Subsequent points from Mark O'Leary and Eoin Kelly put daylight between the two sides while a John Carroll goal helped Tipperary to a 1–9 to 0–5 interval lead.

With the score standing at 1–16 to 2–8 with only five minutes to go, it looked like favourites Tipperary had weathered the Wexford storm, however, Larry O'Gorman goaled again to leave just two points separating the teams.

Both teams struggled to deal with the wet and windy conditions but John Carroll broke the deadlock for Tipperary in the ninth minute by powerfully bursting through and kicking past Wexford 'keeper Damien Fitzhenry for a goal.

Wexford squandered numerous goal opportunities in the opening half, while Tipperary goalkeeper Gerry Kennedy brought off a fantastic save from a piledriver from Stephen Nolan.

With just a minute to go on the clock Darren Stamp caught a long ball on the 20-metre line in front of the Canal End and was subsequently fouled.

A Tipperary player then spoke out of turn, the ball was moved in and Wexford goalkeeper and captain Damien Fitzhenry made his way up to take the free.

The game began with an off-the-ball skirmish involving Tipperary full-back Declan Fanning and Wexford full-forward Stephen Banville which resulted in two yellow cards.

Eoin Kelly grabbed a quick brace of points from play before, in the space of a minute, Lar Corbett cracked home his two goals.